Kevin De Bruyne registered his 11th assist of the season for Manchester City as they eased to a 4-0 win over Southampton, but Pep Guardiola was still critical of the Belgian's performance.
De Bruyne moved up to fifth outright in the all-time Premier League assists chart when he strode forward and set up Phil Foden to score City's second against Southampton, becoming the Blues' top Premier League assister in the process.
However, Guardiola challenged him to be even better than he showed against Southampton when asked about his form this season where he has 11 assists and one goal in 12 games. His nine Premier League assists as already surpassed his total from last season.
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"Of course for Kevin, a player like him, he has this threat, moments in behind with the space helps a lot," Guardiola said.
"Kevin makes again or four assists but he can play better, today was not the best Kevin we know. He can put his mates infront of the keeper most of the time. He was not ready in the positions we should find him.
"[But] to have Erling, Julian, Phil making movements behind, so important for players like Kevin."
Guardiola also challenged his whole squad to be ready in the next few weeks, suggesting he won't be afraid to drop any under-performers as he looks to keep City's good run going.
He said: "We score a lot of goals, the last two games we didn't concede one shot. Against United we were sloppy in the last minutes, concede two avoidable goals. I have a good feeling, everyone knows, rotate the team, everyone is involved. We need everyone, everyone knows what we have to do.
"If they don't we give suggestions at half time or the day after to improve in this way. We're scoring lots of goals. when you score goals it's because you're playing more than this."
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