The talismanic Belgian explains why he feels no animosity towards the man who gave him the boot at Chelsea and why Manchester City like their music loud

Kevin De Bruyne is as cool about being rejected by José Mourinho as he is when dismantling opponents with his laser-like midfield passes for Manchester City. It is the morning after the night before following City’s 3-0 trouncing by Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final first leg. Despite the disappointment, De Bruyne, dressed in a white No 17 City training top, is in eloquent form.

The Belgian is content to recall being sold to Wolfsburg in January 2014 when Mourinho was in charge at Chelsea and how this helped make him pivotal in a City team who are a glaring 16 points ahead of Manchester United. In Saturday’s Manchester derby Mourinho knows if De Bruyne can be stymied United will go a long way to preventing Pep Guardiola’s side from sealing the title against their fiercest rivals in front of their own crowd.

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De Bruyne bounced back from being discarded by Mourinho to become one of the game’s top footballers and is a firm contender for the player of the year award. In his sole full season in the Bundesliga he was the 2014-15 footballer of the year, winning him a move to City for a then club-record £55m.

Asked about his experience under Mourinho, De Bruyne strikes a calm note. “I really don’t care,” the 26-year-old says. “It’s just part of football – it goes up and down. In the 10 years I’ve been playing, nine and a half years have been up and a half year has been a bit down.

“I can be really happy with the way it’s gone because a lot of people go up and down, up and down. I’ve had the feeling that gradually I’ve got better and better. That was an experience where I learned maybe the most out of how football goes, how I go with the situation. I was only 21 at the time – no one is going to play all the time at that age. If I see the amount of games I’ve played in my career it’s a lot, so I’m happy.”

De Bruyne’s principal challenger for the player of the year awards is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian is another player in whom Mourinho showed scant faith, allowing him to go out on loan to Fiorentina and Roma after signing the forward for Chelsea in January 2014.

De Bruyne says: “It shows Salah’s and my strength. If somebody [a manager] comes to you and [offers you] not enough and you make a decision to go play football and have confidence in yourself that you can do well, as long as you’re physically and mentally right, you can make it.

“Everyone needs to find a system and playing style that suits. Probably now we’ve found somebody who suits us both more than it was before. In both our cases that’s true but that’s the same for a lot of players. It’s just because it’s the same manager and it’s both of us in the same season who are going well that people are talking about it. But every manager will have had a lot of players who were not suited with each other, who went away and did well. I’m not really that type of person who thinks about that. It’s just the way it goes, in life, in football.”

December’s reverse fixture ended in a 2-1 win for City at Old Trafford. Afterwards Mourinho was involved in a bust-up with Guardiola’s players after he went to the dressing room to ask that their music be turned down and more respect shown.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kevin De Bruyne with José Mourinho at Chelsea in 2013 – he was sold to Wolfsburg a few months later. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

De Bruyne is defiant when asked if there may be a repeat. “The volume is always up,” he says. “It’s our way to prepare for games, the music is on before the game and after, so it’s not like because we won we’re going to change, it’s just because it’s the thing we do, it’s the thing that gets us relaxed, maybe.

“Some teams don’t do music but a lot of teams I’ve played in have. Obviously the dressing rooms are mostly close to each other but it’s not to mock anybody.”

There will be no concerns about upsetting Mourinho again. “You have to [accept] it – if you lose, you lose. You have [to accept] people mock you, that people do things on social media, say things about you. We put music on for us, not to do anything bad to other people. It’s our thing to relax and have fun and if people take it that it’s bad [towards] them, I’m sorry but it’s just for us. In the end it’s just the way it is, because lot of teams put music on and we hear it also, so I don’t think it’s disrespectful.”

City are closing in on a slew of records. Beat United and they will be champions with a record-breaking six matches to spare They would jump to 87 points and have a chance of eclipsing the 95 of Mourinho’s 2004-05 title winners.

De Bruyne is unsure what strength of side Guardiola will field. “I can understand the feeling of supporters,” he says. “But I don’t know what the coach wants to do. We have four games in 10 days or something so it’s his decision. I know how it goes between fans on social media, how it goes after games. That’s their thing, naturally. All the players are desperate to play every game. You perform for 10 months on a good level to try to get to these sort of games, and hopefully you can finish it off well.”

Those four matches comprise Liverpool away and home in the Champions League, United’s visit and then next Saturday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. De Bruyne displays confidence, as he has to, that City will be unaffected by the Liverpool defeat despite a first half in which they were torn apart.

“The last time we lost a game we showed a reaction which is a good thing,” he says of the 3-0 EFL Cup final win over Arsenal that followed a 1-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup. “I’m not saying we’re going to win the game; it’s going to be tough. We just played and Saturday is early but we will try everything to win that game and then we will see.”

De Bruyne’s vision on the pitch can be sublime. In October’s 7-2 thrashing of Stoke a delightful reverse pass to Leroy Sané nullified seven defenders before the German picked out Raheem Sterling for the home side’s second goal.

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De Bruyne offers a modest take on the whole thing. “You can’t train for that kind of ball,” he says. “Because it’s almost never going to happen, that that situation is going to be there, that the defence is going to be open and in that line.”

He is more upbeat over the prospect of City retaining the title, an achievement managed only by United and Chelsea in the Premier League era. “To maintain it is always more difficult than to win it the first time,” he says, “but I have the feeling this time we can go on.”

He finishes with an intriguing insight into Guardiola’s style. “If you speak one to one, he can be very close to you,” De Bruyne says. “But I guess, when you’re a coach, you need to have a bit of space between you and the player. He’s your boss and so you have to do what he asks you to do, and if you’re too close it can lead to problems with players, if they see that. So it’s a fine balance for a manager but the way he does it for this team is good.”

Against United, City hope to restore the equilibrium that was shattered at Anfield on Wednesday. As ever, De Bruyne will be key.