Kevin de Bruyne believes Jack Grealish gets unfair scrutiny because he is English

Kevin de Bruyne believes Jack Grealish's critics are too focused on his personal life as he backed the England midfielder to deliver.

Belgium international De Bruyne reckons the spotlight is on his £100million Manchester City team-mate because of his nationality and, if he was a foreign player, he would be left to adapt.

Grealish scored his first goal of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 Premier League triumph at 10-man Wolves.

The 27-year-old had come under fire for a lack of goals and assists – it was just his fourth top-flight strike since joining City from boyhood club Aston Villa in August 2021 – but De Bruyne feels some of the criticism is only because he is English.

"Yes, it is not about football," he said. "Outside of football, the focus is more on them (the English players). I understand because they are English and people tend to look more what is happening.

"I feel like foreign players, for instance, if you have a night out, we don’t really get checked that often. Whereas I feel if an English player goes out, it is always in the media somewhere.

"I think people are taking this on board. What he does in his private life, nobody should care, but people do.

"I don’t feel anybody necessarily thinks about how he felt moving away for the first time and people think it is always easy to do that.

"But there are a lot of obstacles coming around with moving clubs and houses and whatever. You know obviously he needed some time to settle in but he is fine. Be patient, I am not too worried."

Grealish scored after just 53 seconds at Molineux before Erling Haaland and Phil Foden made it a comfortable win which took City top before Arsenal’s 3-0 victory at Brentford on Sunday sent them back to the summit.

Former Villa captain Grealish, who