Kevin De Bruyne gave a mixed response when asked whether Pep Guardiola has directly improved him as a player at Manchester City.
The 30-year-old has won nine major honours during his time at City since joining from Wolfsburg in 2015 for a club record fee of £55million. There were some concerns around the transfer after struggling in his two-year stint with Chelsea at the start of his professional career.
However, De Bruyne has proved some of the doubters wrong and has gone on to become one of City's best-ever players in the Premier League era. Signed by Manuel Pellegrini, De Bruyne scored 17 goals and provided 15 assists in his first season at City as they finished fourth.
Pep Guardiola's arrival gave everyone at the club a new lease of life and De Bruyne continued to impress, cementing himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet. He has consistently hit at least 20 goal contributions every season since making the switch to the Etihad Stadium.
This campaign has arguably been his most productive, though. The Belgium international has netted 15 times and notched 12 assists in 40 appearances, with the Citizens in pole position to lift the Premier League title for the fourth time in time seasons. They could also win the Champions League for the very first time and face Real Madrid in their semi-final second-leg on Wednesday night. De Bruyne scored the opening goal as Guardiola's side lead 4-3 from the first-leg.
Despite his form throughout the season, De Bruyne was reluctant to reveal whether Guardiola has made him a better player in the past six years. He also revealed that his good fortunes is a 'combination of everything'. He said: "It's hard to tell. Maybe yes, maybe no. Obviously he has helped me to progress in various ways but it's hard to say I would or would not be like this with other managers.
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"He has done amazing things with me and the team to get success but the players work very hard to achieve that - if you don't want to listen or work hard you won't get better. It is a combination of everything. I'm lucky to come across a manager who plays the way I like to play and that makes it more handy for me."
Quizzed on whether he feels like the best version of himself, De Bruyne added: "You guys can tell me. The first months of the season were really hard, I have never experienced the pain that I had back then. I was trying to come back but was in pain with my ankle every day and it wasn't something I enjoyed.
"Mentally it was hard to overcome that but once the pain was gone after a couple of months I started to feel more confident in myself and my body to get back to where I belong and now playing all these games week in, week out, I feel back to the level that I was before."
