Ahead of Manchester City's penultimate game of the season, Jamie Redknapp discusses what it will mean for Leroy Sane and Kevin De Bruyne when they get their hands on the trophy. Watch Nissan Match Zone on Sky Sports Premier League.
Manchester City team-mates Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane sat down with Sky Sports Jamie Redknapp to discuss their relationship, the qualities of their team and why David Silva is a “special” player.
There was also talk about comparing Sane to Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs and why De Bruyne was forbidden from playing with his right foot as a youngster in his garden.
Here’s everything De Bruyne and Sane had to say ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Huddersfield on Sunday, live on Sky Sports…
On playing together…
Sane: “It makes it much easier for me to play with a player like him, especially having played a season together and knowing what each other wants to see, knowing he likes this, he likes that. The connection works much better. Both players know what the other can do and what he is going to do and everybody is helping each other. It looks like it’s easy sometimes but it’s not always, it’s kind of a dream.
“Sometimes I don’t expect the ball is coming and even if he’s not even looking I am running anyway to the goal, then the ball is coming.”
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De Bruyne: “It makes it easier for me because I am a creative player who tries to create opportunities for other players. I know that I need them to finish it off. I can create as much as I want but if they waste the opportunities I create it will be bad, so the better they do the better I am going to look.
“I try to understand what they like best. Myself and David [Silva] have to make sure that the guys who play up front get the ball in the positions they like. With players like Leroy and Raheem [Sterling] they prefer it more in the space and then Bernardo [Silva] likes it at his feet. It’s trying to adapt and take advantage of other people. Leroy is that fast so if you are going to play it into space when he has that freedom it’s very hard for the right-back to hold him because you can’t just foul him.
Watch a preview of Sunday's Premier League games
On City’s season…
De Bruyne: “If you get so many points it’s a very nice feeling. We don’t know what is going to happen in the next three games but imagine if we get seven points we could have 100 points. I don’t think a lot of teams will get to that in the future.
“The guys who came in last summer helped us a lot, brought a lot of energy, quickness, power, and the rest of the guys stepped up. It’s not one or two guys, it’s everybody doing better compared to last year, so if everybody has that effect on each other it makes it better.”
Sane: “I have really enjoyed it since I came here to Manchester and this team. I play with fantastic players and have really good stuff around me and everyone is helping me. That is why if you feel really comfortable at one place it is much easier to feel good and feel free and play well on the pitch.”
On “special” David Silva…
Sane: “He is an unbelievable player. He never loses the ball, he never misses a pass, he is a special player. He knows his team-mates, what they like and how he can help us too. To have him in the team is really good.
“I haven’t been playing long, but I have never played with players like this together (Silva and De Bruyne). They know how to pass the ball, to exactly which foot and exactly how hard to pass it so I only have to take one or two touches to get to the goal. They make it much easier for me.”
De Bruyne: “From the moment I came in I have had a good relationship with David. The first year was a bit more difficult, I had a long injury and he was injured some time, but from the moment we started to play together last year it has been really good.
“He is unbelievable, football is easy for him. It’s difficult to explain because sometimes as a midfielder you can be under-appreciated in a lot of things. He is good at everything. If you do the basic things very well you are unbelievable. You need to be a football player or really close to it to really understand what he does for us.”
On Sane comparisons to Giggs…
De Bruyne: “It’s the same type of dribbles, they go outside but Leroy is very dangerous when he starts to dribble inside. They [the defenders] don’t know who needs to pick him up and he swirls like a little snake in between everybody. It’s very difficult because he does it mostly two or three times a game but when he does it he goes full at it and it’s very difficult to stop him because they are all looking at each other for what to do and in the end he scores or gets an assist.”
On garden rules…
De Bruyne: “When I was younger and I played in the garden I wasn’t allowed to play with my right foot because I would kill the flowers. They said to shoot with my left and that’s when I started shooting and in training I just do inside, outside and in the end I benefitted a lot from it.”
On lifting the Premier League trophy on Sunday…
Sane: “I can’t wait, it will be a really special day, it’s my first trophy from winning the league and the best league in the world. I can’t wait for it.”
De Bruyne: “It’s going to be a good day. We have been waiting a bit, where you play football without pressure and try to do the game as good as the last two but in the end all we play for now is records. If we can have a good performance then we have the celebration and everybody will be excited.”
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Sourse: skysports.com
