Man City star Kevin De Bruyne has no sympathy for Liverpool after title triumph – ‘We were better than them’

Kevin de Bruyne has a simple message for Liverpool: We were better than you.

The Manchester City playmaker is assessing the most thrilling of Premier League title races, which eventually saw Pep Guardiola's champions pip their rivals by a single point. Liverpool's total of 97 points was the highest of any runner-up in history.

City, meanwhile, needed to record the second highest total of all-time to retain their title, 98, after setting the bar with 100 last season.

But does De Bruyne feel any sympathy for Jurgen Klopp's side?

"No," is his brutally honest answer. "It's a remarkable effort, but it means that we were just better than them in the end.

In Pictures | Brighton vs Man City | 12/05/2019

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"I don't feel sorry for them, because I don't think they'd feel sorry for us. I don't think anybody felt sorry about the way we went out of the Champions League.

"You take it. I know how they feel, because you're going to feel disappointed.

"It's been a great battle. But to feel sorry for them is maybe going a little too far."

City can become the first English team to win a domestic treble if they beat Watford in Saturday's FA Cup final. De Bruyne is sitting in the club's state-of-the-art academy before a last training session with Guardiola.

Should they lift the Cup at Wembley it would mean City have won five of the last six available domestic trophies.

And if not for VAR ruling out Raheem Sterling's injury time strike against Tottenham in the Champions League quarter-final – dreams of a quadruple could still be on.

Yet De Bruyne has his doubts about whether anyone will complete the clean sweep.

"You don't start with the objective to win everything," he says. "I think we saw this year, to do what we did and just miss out on three games, is nearly an impossible task.

"You need a bit of luck with the draw, then you need not too many injuries where you can cope. With the exception of a few, including myself, we've been okay, but you need a strong squad, because otherwise you can't do it.

"It's very hard. I think it's nearly impossible because everybody in the group saw the mental strain it gave us, the physical strain.

"I think what we did last year was so good, because last year we also had the World Cup. Nobody had a nice rest or time to switch off.

"Then to do it again, after last year, that's the most special thing about it."

De Bruyne faces an anxious wait to learn if he will start at Wembley.

De Bruyne has had a disrupted season after a series of injuries
REUTERS

"Pep rarely says it up front," he says. "Maybe three or four games out of the 60 - it's always the meeting before the game.

"Maybe sometimes he doesn't even know until a few minutes before – I can believe that. I've no idea where we're going with the gaffer sometimes."

As he talks, it's notable that the 27-year-old's fingernails are completely chewed down.

Perhaps that is a consequence of a season blighted by two knee-ligament injuries, which have seen him side-lined for much of it.

That experience has taught him that there will always be someone to take your place in Guardiola's squad.

Bernardo Silva has deputised spectacularly for the Belgium international this season, with Guardiola claiming the playmaker should have beaten Raheem Sterling and Virgil van Dijk to the individual honours.

De Bruyne, who was City's talisman during their centurions campaign last season, acknowledges no one is untouchable.

Bernardo Silva has excelled in De Bruyne's absence
AP

"It's not like he (Guardiola) speaks about it," he adds. "It's hard because some players – like Nico (Otamendi) – played everything, even when he was injured.

"This year you play less. You feel bad for somebody really because there isn't really a reason why they don't play, it's just that he chooses somebody else.

"You have to accept it as a player and I've had to do that for different reasons too.

"It's not always nice because you come into a season thinking it'll be the same as last year. Everybody knows what the goal is.

"You can be angry and disappointed about it but when you come on the pitch you have to show your worth.

"Everybody has done that. They all perform. That's why we've gone so far."

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