In Focus: De Bruyne has a point to prove on City return

Kevin De Bruyne endured a tough World Cup campaign with Belgium and he will now be more determined than ever to light up the Premier League with Manchester City.

The playmaker was unable to prevent the Red Devils from crashing out in the group stage in Qatar, consigning them to their worst major tournament showing for 10 years.

But it is a different story at club level for the 31-year-old maestro, who produced 18 goal contributions in 20 games in all competitions during the first half of the campaign.

As City try to reel in Arsenal at the top of the Premier League — starting with a victory on their return at Leeds tonight — we turn the spotlight on their creator-in-chief.

Golden generation falls

Ranked second in the world as they arrived in Qatar, expectations for Belgium’s campaign were naturally high.

But with many of their famed golden generation reaching the twilights of their international careers, it seemed to be the final chance for this crop of stars to deliver.

Much of the burden was placed on De Bruyne, who remains one of the world’s best creative players, but he struggled to propel his country.

A slender victory over Canada was followed by defeat to Morocco and a stalemate with Croatia, which saw them crash out amid speculation there were issues within the Red Devils dressing room.

Class shines through

Without a goal or an assist in the three group clashes, it would be easy to write off De Bruyne’s World Cup campaign as a failure.

But the No7 certainly did his bit to prevent that from happening, as a closer look at his statistics show.

He produced eight chances across their three Group F outings — just two fewer than finalists Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria managed in the whole tournament.

Their 0-0 draw with Croatia was perhaps the clearest sign of a team unable to match De Bruyne’s quality.

The City man was instrumental in Belgium creating a hatful of chances to get an all-important winner but their forward players were unable to find the crucial touch.

Struggling for fitness, Romelu Lukaku missed four golden chances — two of which came from work by De Bruyne — which you would have to say a striker at the top of his game would finish off.

Highway to Haal

That is exactly what he has at City with Erling Haaland, who he formed a fearsome relationship with during the first half of the season.

The Norwegian hitman scored a sensational 18 goals in his first 13 games in the Premier League, with his arrival also coinciding with one of De Bruyne’s most productive campaigns in sky blue shirt.

The nine assists he has already betters his tally of eight across the whole of last term, with four of those contributing to a Haaland goal.

Ahead of linking up in the Premier League once again against Leeds, De Bruyne has backed his partner in crime to maintain his devasting levels of goalscoring form.

The Belgian said of his team-mate: "Erling is so obsessed with goals. He already has about 200 goals, so he can probably go to 600, 700 or 800 if he stays fit and does the things that he does.

"Erling is a top-level striker. I don’t see Erling as different to a lot of people. He is a normal football player like everybody else and he doesn’t take himself too seriously."

A wounded animal

Belgium’s international struggles mean De Bruyne returns with a point to prove — and that could be bad news for the rest of the English top flight.

The maestro claimed two assists in his first game back in a 3-2 Carabao Cup win over Liverpool last week.

And manager Pep Guardiola believes his star midfielder is at his best when wounded.

The Spanish tactician said after the Reds win: "Today he was outstanding. Kevin has had eight years here, you know him like me — he has to find the right fire inside of himself, just to be a little bit, I would say grumpy or upset to play his best. 

"That is the energy inside of him. When this happens, what a player — [he can] run, provide assists, score goals, he is more than a player.

"I know it is not easy to find this consistency every three days but today he had something inside that says I am going to it, I want to fight.

"When this happens it is Mr Kevin De Bruyne, what can I say, eight years he has done everything for this club, an absolute legend. 

"He will be remembered for ever as one of the greatest, greatest, greatest players of this club."

With the gap behind Arsenal at the summit now at eight points, City will hope De Bruyne keeps that fire in his belly throughout the remainder of the campaign.