Wayne Rooney says Kevin De Bruyne is so good that he can be described as part Steven Gerrard and part Ryan Giggs.
De Bruyne is seen as key to City's chances of winning the Champions League for the first time in their history in the coming weeks, with the Premier League runners up finally able to host Real Madrid in the second leg of their last-16 tie on Friday night.
Rooney, now at Derby County, came up against the Belgian during his time in the Premier League, and was left in no doubt about his quality.
"De Bruyne reminds me a bit of Steven Gerrard," he wrote in his latest column for The Times .
"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."
Rooney added that he knows all too well how difficult it is to stop De Bruyne and City when they're at their peak.
"There’s no doubt Man City’s biggest weapon is De Bruyne, arguably one of the top three players in the world right now," he said.
"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."
