Kolo Toure Rates De Bruyne Among All-Time Premier League Greats
Kolo Toure has hailed the combination between Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland and believes the Belgium playmaker can be ranked alongside some all-time Premier League greats.
De Bruyne and Haaland have been integral to Manchester City's bid for a treble this season.
Haaland has notched half-a-century of goals across all competitions this term while De Bruyne has been at his supplying best, with 16 assists and seven goals recorded.
Toure was part of the great Arsenal side that went the entire 2003/2004 Premier League season unbeaten and saw at first hand some of the mercurial talents in the squad.
The former Ivory Coast defender said: "[Kevin De Bruyne] is right up there with those top, legendary players. Steven Gerrard, Yaya Toure, all those players, Paul Scholes.
"I rate him really, really high, because this guy technically, tactically is unbelievable. His range of passes is fantastic, his vision is incredibly great and he is, for me, the best midfielder in the world right now.
"One of them definitely. Maybe the best one, because what he has shown game after game is great."
"He shows all his quality technically, tactically with his passes and having Haaland with him has made his game even better, because he has a player he can pass the ball to, as soon as he lifts his head Haaland is on his way and he can pass him the ball at the right time," Toure added.
"Sometimes in teams when you create those relationships – in our time you would say Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, and Thierry Henry as Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne as Dennis Bergkamp really.
"They have this connection together and you can feel that they both know each other, they look for each other. When one provides the ball and the other one scores, the other one runs at him and praises him.
"But, De Bruyne at the moment, for me, is top, top, top. Right up there with all the top midfielders we have had in the Premier League, definitely."