Any assertions of challenges within the group and a drop in performance from Manchester City’s star striker Erling Haaland were played down by Kevin de Bruyne.
In his first season with the team, Haaland has been in sensational form, scoring 34 goals in all of his appearances across all competitions.
The international player from Norway has only scored three goals in his last nine games, raising concerns about a decline in performance.
However, De Bruyne disagrees, saying that teams are better equipped to deal with him now than they were at the start of the season.
“I think it’s a bit of everything but I don’t feel like it’s different than in the beginning,” he told a press conference ahead of the Champions League clash against RB Leipzig.
“People are maybe more anticipating to his runs, there’s always the first part of the season and then the second part. In the second part, I feel teams are a lot more organised, they play for more from both sides of the table, so people are more prepared in every sense of the way.
“Maybe he was a little bit more prolific [before] when he got the chances but I don’t think we need to complain about Erling’s output. I think he’s fine.
“If we see the Crystal Palace game, he could have scored two, I don’t think there’s any issue but obviously people are always anticipating for him to score two or three goals but his average is a goal a game. It seems fine for me.
“It’s good to have different options. In the past few years, people would maybe say there wasn’t enough presence in the box and there wasn’t enough deep runs, now people are saying the opposite.
“It works in different ways. In the beginning of the season when everything was going in, we were winning a lot of games and nothing was going wrong, but then obviously when you lose a few points it’s different.
“I don’t think there’s an issue with anything going out from the team or with Erling. I know people will judge on how we play and maybe we sometimes play a better brand of football in different games or in other years but that happens.
“Crystal Palace at home for instance, he won us the game. I think the team is really happy with him, he’s really happy playing with us, so I think we’re fine.”