Kevin De Bruyne is enjoying his flourishing on-field relationship with Raheem Sterling ahead of Manchester City's Champions League Group D meeting with Sevilla.
De Bruyne and Sterling were City's two marquee close-season signings, with the Belgium international's purchase from Wolfsburg quickly surpassing what was a club-record outlay when the England forward swapped Anfield for the Etihad Stadium.
Four goals in his first six senior starts for City has quickly established De Bruyne as a favourite with the club's supporters, while Sterling struck a maiden senior hat-trick in the 5-1 win over AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
"I was on the left and it was more like a 4-4-2," De Bruyne told reporters. "Raheem is very dangerous when he plays where he did.
"Maybe we don't have the experience like the others. But we play really well together and the more games we get, the better we will do.
"Raheem is really good. He's only 20 years old so there's a lot more to come. He likes to run deep and that makes it easier to find him, I'll try to play that ball.
"Sometimes it will work well, like it did [against Bournemouth], and other times maybe he will not arrive. But if he makes runs like that it's good for me and if a player has pace like that, it's always an advantage."
Nevertheless, De Bruyne does not believe any kind of casualty list can act as an excuse for a club of City's vast resources.
"It's always a blow when you lose players of that quality," De Bruyne added.
"But we need to maintain this level and try to win without them.
"It's not an excuse when we lose to say it was because they were not fit. If you want to win titles you need to get on and do it with the players you have, rather than worrying about the ones who are not fit. So we have to try to win these games without them."
