Pep Guardiola has revealed that Kevin De Bruyne will soon be starting games for Manchester City, but has insisted that he does not intend to take any risks with the playmaker.
De Bruyne has made three substitute appearances for the Citizens following a five-month layoff with a hamstring injury that required surgery.
The Belgian's latest outing was a 25-minute cameo off the bench in Man City's 1-0 away victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday night.
De Bruyne's inswinging corner in the 88th minute led to the match-winner being prodded home by Nathan Ake from close range to ensure that the FA Cup holders have their name in the hat for Sunday's fifth-round draw.
Man City's No.17 was also instrumental in the 3-2 victory away against Newcastle United in the Premier League two weeks ago, registering a goal and an assist in the final 16 minutes, while he also set up Jeremy Doku for a goal in a 5-0 FA Cup third-round win over Huddersfield Town at the beginning of this month – his first appearance in any competition since August.
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Guardiola has acknowledged that De Bruyne is building up his match fitness and believes that the playmaker will soon be ready to be called upon from the start.
"He's ready," the Catalan boss told reporters via mancity.com. "I don't know [when], sooner or later he is going to play from the beginning.
"For many reasons we want to protect him. Always we have the sense he is going to create something.
"It's important that he can feel good and understand problems. He made an exceptional corner in the right spot – really good."
Guardiola was delighted with the manner of his side's performance against Spurs and was pleased to see the club's five-game losing streak without scoring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium come to an end.
"Football is about scoring and not conceding," said Guardiola. "Our stats were really good today, but you see stats for past games when we could not win here.
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"We are really pleased to win and score a goal against this team, go through, and defend the title. We played really well.
"Our performance was top class. These players prove again the reason why they have done what they have done in the past. We played with incredible personality. All the players were top otherwise we cannot do it.
"Now in the second part of the season if we lose we lose competitions, in the FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League, we know how strong all the teams are.
"We cannot drop points. We had that mentality that we have to win to go through, so I am really pleased."
Man City will now shift their attention back to the Premier League as they prepare for a home clash with Burnley next Wednesday.
Oliver Thomas
