Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has explained how Kevin de Bruyne sees passes while playing at high speed is not normal and difficult to find in a player.
De Bruyne, 31, assisted his 100th Premier League goal when crossing for Erling Haaland's opener away at Southampton, becoming only the fifth player to reach the milestone. Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas and Frank Lampard are the existing members of that exclusive club.
The Belgium international may not have the raw numbers to compete with those quartet just yet, but one record he does have over them all is reaching the landmark in far fewer matches than any of them did. Fabregas was the previous quickest, and De Bruyne has made his tally look pedestrian in comparison after bringing up a ton in 56 fewer games.
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Guardiola, who coached Fabregas at Barcelona, has particularly praised his current player for the unusual ability to pick out passes while playing at speed. "(Kevin) is exceptional," he told Sky Sports. "Always he's committed, a guy who likes to play football, but needs rhythm, he has to play (with intensity).
"Some players need to play at 30% or 40%. He's a guy who needs to play every action (at) a high, high level, high intensity, at 80/90%. He needs to play with speed.
"It is so difficult to find. When one player has this 80/90% intensity, he has the ability to see the passes more than when being calmer or while walking.
"The normal players, when you walk, you see everything. But when you run a high speed, you are not able to see what happened. He's completely the opposite. That's why he is an exceptional player."
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