Rudi Garcia intends for Belgium to play an attacking style that gets the most out of Kevin De Bruyne, after the Napoli playmaker lashed out at Antonio Conte's tactical approach.

De Bruyne endured a difficult debut season with Napoli, missing around five months due to a hamstring injury and being limited to only 21 appearances in all competitions.

The Manchester City icon made 16 starts for the Partenopei, racking up 1,360 minutes while scoring five goals and assisting four.

But his troubles were not all fitness-related as, after Conte left the club, he criticised the Italian's rigid, defensive approach and said he was not used in his best position.

De Bruyne has now linked up with Belgium ahead of two pre-World Cup friendlies – versus Croatia on Tuesday and Tunisia on Saturday.

And Garcia, himself a former Napoli head coach, believes De Bruyne will be far more content playing on the international stage.

"The most important thing is that De Bruyne feels good," he said. "I wanted the players to have fun again with the national team. That was one of the goals when I was appointed. 

"We play offensive football, and that suits him. But we also have to be aggressive without the ball. We have already made progress in that. 

"Kevin was there when we qualified for the World Cup in Liege, while he was injured at the time. That says enough about his motivation."

De Bruyne's 117 caps are the sixth-most among all players in Belgium's history, while his 36 goals rank second only to his Napoli team-mate Romelu Lukaku (89).

Like De Bruyne, Lukaku endured a disrupted 2025-26 campaign, with a variety of muscle issues restricting him to seven appearances, all of which came from the bench, totalling a mere 64 minutes. 

Garcia acknowledged that Lukaku – who only scored one goal throughout the season – is not yet ready to start, though he was pleasantly surprised by the 33-year-old's condition when he joined up with the squad.

"I have no worries about Romelu Lukaku, but he is not allowed to skip any stages. He is fit, but he has hardly played," Garcia added.

"I thought he was better than expected, and he is also very motivated. He can't start a match yet. At most, he will be a substitute, and that will probably happen. 

"I can't estimate how he will evolve yet. He has come a long way, but I am extremely happy that he is there. 

"We have to think for him, because Romelu would dare to get ahead of himself."

The Opta supercomputer assigns Belgium a 2.4% chance of winning the World Cup for the first time in their history, marginally better than Croatia's 1.6% probability.

And Garcia believes Tuesday's match in Rijeka will offer the perfect pre-tournament test.

"They are a small country, but they are one of the best teams in Europe," he said of Croatia. "They have shown that in recent years at all major tournaments. 

"We wanted to meet a strong team, so Croatia are perfect. We qualified against good teams, but they were not as good as Croatia. It will also be nice to see strong players like De Bruyne and [Luka] Modric on one field."