Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards has said that it is so hard to play against one particular Manchester City figure.
The Blues have a number of players in their squad who have been at the club for a significant number of years, playing against a plethora of teams and individual opponents.
Now though, one current top-flight player has identified a member of Pep Guardiola’s squad that he feels is particularly daunting to come up against.
Richards says one Man City player is a nightmare to play against
Speaking in a recent video shared on Goal USA’s official TikTok channel, Richards had this to say about Kevin De Bruyne when asked what it’s like to play against him.
He said: “Impossible. You can’t take off for a second. He’s a joke.”
Kevin De Bruyne has been a goal and assist machine for Man City
The defender has only faced off against De Bruyne on one occasion, which came during last season’s meeting between City and Palace in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium.
After the Eagles got themselves 2-0 up, the home side scored four goals in the second half, with Erling Haaland getting three of them.
In the 57th minute of the match, when the score was 2-1 in Palace’s favour, Richards came on for the final period of the game as a substitute.
Even though he only played against De Bruyne for 32 minutes before the Belgian was substituted off, these comments from Richards show how much of a difficult opponent the midfielder can be for defenders, even though he didn’t assist any of City’s four goals on the day.
Bearing in mind how the midfielder, who is currently City’s best earner with a weekly wage of £400k-per-week, has scored 100 goals and provided 166 assists in 372 appearances for City across all competitions, it’s safe to say that Richards is not the only defender De Bruyne has come up against that finds the 33-year-old a handful to deal with.