De Bruyne, a £54m summer signing, continued the fine start to his City career with a goal and two assists to send the Blues top of the table on Saturday
De Bruyne, a £54million summer signing, continued the fine start to his City career with a goal and two assists to send the Blues top of the table.
That took his total to seven goals and eight assists in 14 starts for City, proving the wisdom of his signing, despite the vastly inflated transfer fee.
But De Bruyne believes he can get even better alongside playmaker Silva, who made his return as a sub after an eight-week lay-off with an ankle injury.
De Bruyne and Silva have been restricted to just three appearances together, totalling 159 minutes, because of the latter’s enforced absence.
“We didn’t play that much together, and that’s been really difficult for both of us, but he’s such a great player that it’s easy to play together with him,” said De Bruyne.
“Everybody has his own style, and I think we play almost at the same position, but we’re very different players, so it’s better to have different players who play together than to have all the same.
“I’m more direct than him, he can keep the ball a little bit more than me, so with the two together that’s an advantage and we can switch different things.”
De Bruyne admitted that defeat was hard to take but said City’s players had consigned it to the past and were now focused on the challenges ahead, starting with tomorrow’s Capital One Cup quarter-final at home to Hull.
“It happens, we didn’t play well against Liverpool, we lost, so we had to move on,” said De Bruyne.
“I think against Juventus we played much better, we deserved a draw over there and here we also showed a reaction.”
“He’s a very technical player and I always say the way we play is good for him with his style of football,” said Pellegrini.
“I hope he will continue making good assists and working the way he did - scoring goals is also important.
“He also scored a lot of goals in Germany, so we brought him here because he is a mix of a creative player and also a goalscorer.”
De Bruyne opened the scoring, with Fabian Delph netting on his first start for City. Shane Long pulled one back for Saints, before Aleksandar Kolarov sealed the win with a late strike.
City remain involved in four competitions, but Pellegrini played down their chances of scooping an unprecedented Quadruple this season.
“If you have all the whole squad, are lucky not to have injuries and you have a great performance of the players, maybe you can do it.
“But really, we’re not think that in this moment.”
City’s position at the top is all the more impressive when set against the backdrop of players they have been without, including Silva, skipper Vincent Kompany, star striker Sergio Aguero and goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Aguero went off with an ankle injury in the 64th minute, but the striker said he could play “tomorrow” if required, allaying fears of another sustained period out of action.
“I’m very pleased,” said Pellegrini. “If you asked me if I want to change my position with another English team, I would say ‘no’.
“And, in the Capital One Cup, we’re the only team left in playing in the Champions League. So we don’t need to change places with another team.
“If you have so many inured players - and we’re always talking about Silva, or Kun [Aguero] or Vincent, who are three major players.
“But I also think not to have Samir Nasri, when you don’t have Silva, is important also.
“Also not to have Pablo Zabaleta or Gael Clichy for three months, or Fernando for one-and-a-half-months.
“With so many injured players, I think it’s a merit of the squad to be in the position we’re in.”
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