Kevin De Bruyne has defended manager Pep Guardiola's tactics following Manchester City's Champions League thrashing by the Spaniard's former club Barcelona.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and Neymar netted a late fourth as Luis Enrique's side made the most of Claudio Bravo's red card in Wednesday's meeting at Camp Nou.

Guardiola opted to leave Sergio Aguero out of his starting line-up, instead favouring a false nine system with De Bruyne pushed forward as the spearhead of the attack, but City were unable to capitalise on the opportunities they created.

However, De Bruyne is confident that Guardiola's style will bring success, despite his side having gone four games without a win in all competitions.

"I think it's the right way," he said. "Obviously, against Everton [last week], we could have won easily, everyone knows that, even if it was 1-1.

"Even against Barcelona we didn't play badly, we just made mistakes, which happens. We could have scored goals, we had the same amount of possession – and almost the same amount of goalscoring opportunities.

"In the end they scored four and it looks bad. But I don't think we should feel bad. I don't think we have to change as a team or change the mentality. We've already won a lot of games and it's not like Barcelona are a bad team.

"It's just the way it is. We know that people are saying it's bad, but I see it differently. People can say whatever they want, but this is the way we need to play and we'll win a lot of games like this.

"Obviously we made mistakes because we lost 4-0, but I think this is the way we have to play."