Wayne Rooney has revealed what it is like to face Kevin De Bruyne on the field.
And the Manchester United legend believes that his former Manchester City foe is one of the three best players on the planet at the moment.
Rooney lined up against De Bruyne in Manchester derbies just twice, losing one and drawing one, but the following season he felt the full force of the Belgium international as City beat his Everton team 3-1 at Goodison Park.
Writing in his column for The Sunday Times , Rooney said: “There’s no doubt Man City’s biggest weapon is De Bruyne — arguably one of the top three players in the world right now
“Playing against him was never, ever, easy and I’ll always remember Everton using me and Morgan Schneiderlin, in a 4-4-2, against a City midfield of De Bruyne, David Silva and Fernandinho, with Sterling dropping in.
“They absolutely outnumbered us. Me and Schneiderlin were in the middle of the pitch saying, ‘What’s going on here?!’
“We were 3-0 down after 37 minutes and had 18 per cent possession in the game.”
Rooney goes on to compare De Bruyne to United legend Ryan Giggs and Liverpool great Steven Gerrard.
“De Bruyne reminds me a bit of Steven Gerrard,” Rooney said. “He drifts out to that right-hand side and plays some brilliant balls whipped in, like Stevie used to.
“What I like most is he takes chances, he takes risks, he doesn’t go for the easy ball — he plays the hard pass.
“You watch, when he’s in possession in space other players start running and that’s the biggest compliment you can pay a midfielder.
“When I played with Ryan Giggs and Giggsy got the ball, I made runs because I knew he’d try and find me, and if it came off he’d get me through on goal.
“De Bruyne is like that. Teams think they can force him to play it to the side but he can squeeze those passes through the smallest gaps.”
