Vincent Kompany has been speaking about Kevin De Bruyne ahead of Manchester City vs Burnley in the Premier League tonight.
City are back at the Etihad Stadium, ready to host the Clarets in their fourth match of 2024 – and Pep Guardiola is looking to make it four wins out of four.
Since coming back from the Club World Cup, City have been really good and there is real optimism now that the team can go through the gears in the second half of the season.
The return of Kevin De Bruyne will no doubt help City to do that – and Burnley boss Kompany spoke a little bit about the 32-year-old ahead of tonight’s game…
Vincent Kompany praises Kevin De Bruyne ahead of Manchester City vs Burnley
Kompany is hoping to pull off a shock result tonight, but that will obviously not be easy.
The Clarets have a really poor recent record against City, especially at the Etihad Stadium.
Burnley have never won at the Etihad, and Pep’s side have often had a field day. In the last six years, there has been one 6-0 win for City, three 5-0s and one 4-1 win.
Tonight, Pep Guardiola may well start Kevin De Bruyne, with the Belgian having made a few appearances of the bench since returning from injury. He’s ready to play from the start, and that happening will be bad news for Burnley.
Having played with him at domestic and international level, Kompany knows better than many what De Bruyne is truly capable of, and he sung his praises yesterday.
He said (via Beanyman Sports): “Kev will always have an impact. If you’re able to distribute the ball like he can… you can be in many positions and still have an impact on the game. These guys are also, in one way friends, I want to be positive on them, but at the same time my focus is on Burnley right now.
“As much as every single game of the season I wish him to do so well, at this moment in time I want (Josh) Brownhill to do better!
“He’s a wonderful person and he’s a friend, but I want my players to do better.”
A chance for KDB to find form tonight
It will be interesting to see if £55 million star De Bruyne is handed a start tonight, with the maestro having looked fairly sharp across his cameo appearances recently.
It would be no surprise, given Pep has said he is ready to play a full game.
But there are other players in top form at the moment, like Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Bernardo Silva, which might just see Pep keep his talisman back for another game.
But certainly, Kompany will hope that his former teammate features as little as possible tonight.
