Manchester City and Kevin De Bruyne ended their drought of seven games without a win in all competitions, including four consecutive defeats in the Premier League, when they hosted Nottingham Forest this Wednesday (3-0) at the Etihad Stadium. The Belgian playmaker, started for the first time since his return from injury at the beginning of November, greatly contributed to the success of the Skyblues by scoring a goal and delivering an assist for Jérémy Doku.
In recent weeks, rumors had mentioned tensions between De Bruyne and his coach Pep Guardiola to justify his current low playing time. The captain of the Red Devils wanted to deny these speculations and take stock of his physical condition.
De Bruyne explains his situation
“It’s an uncomfortable wound, a mystery and a puzzle. I’m slowly improving. I was able to play a lot of minutes without feeling bad”he informed
BBC Sport. “It’s a relief. Most of us had already had careers at City, so I played against relegation. It could have been much worse. It was a difficult time. We were not up to par. We had injuries and so on. »
Despite everything, De Bruyne displays his optimism as City’s trip to Crystal Palace approaches in three days. “Today, I hope this is a first step towards improvement. It’s good to change the dynamic. In some games that we lost, there were periods where we didn’t play badly,” he regretted, before dispelling any misunderstanding concerning Guardiola. “I know a lot has been said. There were never any problems between me and Pep. He knows that I suffer (from an abdominal hernia, editor’s note). It’s painful and uncomfortable.”he concluded.
