Wow the 29’s look young on there!
Kevin De Bruyne
- Thread starter Robbie Boy
- Start date
Always thought he was overrated.
White text?
No white text. Just a pure and sincere wum.
No white text. Just a pure and sincere wum.
At least you are honest, haha.
Hall of shame WC performance.
There is honestly no world in which the bolded is true. And do you really think that Bruno is as tidy a player as kdb?
Modric is a class player of course, just that I don't think he's best player in the world level anymore, understandable given his age. Can only play at one pace (which to his credit, does everything to bring the game down to that pace).
Its because of him. You dont downplay your own teams chances like that.
What do you mean by tidy?
If I see it correctly he had 10 goals and 5 assists by the end of December, and 5 of those goals were penalties. I'd say that's not only poor by Messi's standards, that's poor by the standards that the primary goalscorer of Barcelona should have.He was absolutely world class for the reminder of that season though, as well as in the Copa.
KDB is tidier in possession, but I think the biggest differences between them are that De Bruyne is even better at what they're elite at (shooting, crossing and through balls) AND he is a real threat to run past you with the ball with his lanky stride. Also while Bruno makes better runs over the top, he's a small and terrible target for those, while KDB's movement tends to be better wider and that's just a better skill to have for #10s who aren't particularly big and strong and fast; It's much easier to find a spot of patch out wide or between the CB and FB then it is to outduel and outrun CBs for a lofted pass in behind centrally.
He uses the ball better and is tidier in possession imo. Bruno can be very loose on the ball and can lose it really cheaply. He is also much less consistent than kdb.
Yeah, agree with this.
This thread pretty much summarises my thoughts. People calling this guy the best midfielder in premier league history are jokers. Guy can't dribble, loses simple passes, spams crosses constantly and is a ball loss merchant. Every big moment he flops. City already won the hardest league challenge they faced without him.
He really isn't. De Bruyne's ball control is pretty average for the supposed best midfielder in the world. Every game I've seen him, he loses the ball unnecessarily and gives away simple passes. He spams crosses constantly in games and when one comes off he is seen as a genius. If he played for United's mf back in the days we would never have won the league because of how much possession he gives away. That's why pep started playing him as a false 9 and City stopped conceding. The only thing he is elite at is through balls and crosses. That's it. everything else he is slightly above average. Put Bruno in City and he won't look that much worse.
De Bruyne is simply nowhere near Modric's level. We have seen it season after season.
In this World cup KdB has horrendous pass completion stats, never reached the 80’s, one game at 70%.
It’s been the same in a few Champions League games this season also.
In fact, it’s often like this, especially when his team is struggling somewhat.
He, like Bruno, looks tidier when his team are ahead and on top, when it’s not going great, he becomes extremely loose on the ball.
This is doing De Bruyne an enormous disservice and there are certain parts of this that just seem bizarre (we'd have never won the league with him in the team, he's slightly above average in everything but through balls and crosses, and put Bruno in City and he won't look that much worse). He's not had a great tournament but he's a brilliant player, unfortunately. I agree that he's not on Modric's level, for what it's worth, but never said he was.
He's had a bad tournament, like Belgium, no denying it. He doesn't really look particularly arsed. I disagree that it's often like this, though. That's just revisionism.
It is feck.
In the Champions League this season he averages a pass completion of 76%. Bruno in Europa League has 85%.
In the Premier League this season he averages a pass completion of 80%.(Bruno 78%).
In the WC KdB has 74%, Bruno 89%. Portugal have had an easier WC so far mind, hence the huge differences there, which I’d argue is the same for KdB at City, but make no mistake, when City aren’t playing great, KdB becomes as untidy as we sometimes see Bruno as he starts attempting too much and forcing it.
Has nothing to do with revisionism, KdB is a great player, but he’s no more “tidy” than Bruno, he’s a creator, and like Bruno that results in them sometimes being “loose” with the ball.
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But kdb is more productive than Bruno when he plays lower percentage passes. Also (and I totally admit this is just going on what I've seen) Bruno gives the ball away in more dangerous areas than kdb and in stupider ways. Also, comparing CL pass completion with EL is a little apples and oranges isn't it?
Talking about him as a child is pretty classless.
That whole twitter thread is a bit stupid. Everything on Twitter. these days has to be either THE WORSE WORLD CUP MIDFIELDER OF ALL TIME or MIDFIELD GOAT.
They’ll dismiss this when he sticks 2 on Haalands head v Brighton but his record here does go against him
Absolutely, hence why I included the PL and WC.
Last season Bruno had 78% in the CL if you want a frame of reference.
City are simply more productive than United, a goldfish can see that, and their entire side is less likely to give the ball away in dangerous areas due to how slow they build up, and how dominant they are territorially. So if you’re looking for apples and oranges…..
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It's a pointless comparison all in, to be honest. A goldfish would be able to tell you that kdb is a far superior player to Bruno (unless it was a united supporting goldfish). KdB is statistically looser on the ball than I expected, tbh, but some of the chat about KdB in the last couple of pages (not aiming this at you) is biased nonsense. De Bruyne is a top two or three player in the PL but some are talking about him like he's an average scrub because he's had a poor tournament.
I'm not really here to defend De Bruyne because I don't really care but a lot is being made of his "no chance, we're too old comment". Was he not being sarcastic when he said it? I immediately assumed he was but plenty seem to be using it against him.
Someone other than Pep will bring Peps system?
Interesting. Does he have a twin brother called Pep or a clone?
If KDB asks nicely we can send him videos of Casemiro to help him develop his game
Guardiola puts him on a leash at City and he does better for it. He reverts to heroball pretty quickly for Belgium somehow.
Still, class player. Someone has to get blamed for the Belgium exit and he's their poster boy. Expect this to blow over when he scores and sets one up for City.
Still, class player. Someone has to get blamed for the Belgium exit and he's their poster boy. Expect this to blow over when he scores and sets one up for City.
He played well I thought and if Mertens or Lukaku had buried just one of a few easy chances his performance takes on a whole other context.
He doesn't. Watch the last game he played for City. Easily the worst player on the pitch. The thing is City can counterpress well. He was one of the main reasons City kept getting counter attacked because of his sloppy ability on the ball. He is exactly like Bruno with a killer pass. Swap KdB for Bruno and we'll have the same issues.
Maybe he has a clone.
In lieu of that, what I am saying is that I'd love a system at United that makes fraudulent/average players appear WC, like what they have at City.
This is exactly my point. I do believe that both are world class and are not far off Luka Modric. My argument is that people put far too much weight on ball control and passing completion stats thereby judging certain players far more harshly based on comparing different roles rather that simply effectiveness. We had Mata as a no.10 for years, his passing completion stats were great and in the right games who could string around passes, but at the end of the day, he wasn't creative enough for us.
It's the same as the Eriksen argument, Bruno is better than Eriksen. He is riskier with his passing, but he offers a better creative threat, a better goal threat, is quicker and is a far better presser, yet all some people can focus on is the fact that he doesn't misplace the ball as much, which usually is as a result of Bruno actually trying to create chances consistently. Something that other members of our squad have been to scared to try to do for the last 10 years. It's the same reason I always hated the criticism of Nani. Where players like Ashley Young or Valencia could get away with doing the same move, the obvious move or not doing anything at all, letting the game pass them by. Nani tried to create, using his flair to try things to open up the opposition. When they didn't come off, despite the fact that noone else had even been able to create chances, he would bare the brunt of the criticism for us not winning a game, whilst players like Young, Mhikitaryan, Kagawa and Welbeck would get away with their passiveness.
United and Belgium should have been doing a much better job at recovering the ball. Both teams should be far more solid and able to eliminate a lot of counter attacking threats. Yet instead of focusing on the fact that their teammates aren't actually doing their job, people would instead discredit the creative midfielder. Croatia didn't look great for large periods of this tournament. If Croatia had lost, people would not criticize Modric as much despite having a better team. Why? Because it's much harder to spot a poor or average performance from a central midfielder than it is an attacking player. Modric can simply look beautiful on the ball without helping control the midfield and people would excuse the performance. However, players like KDB, Bruno, Ozil...if the risks that they are expected to take don't pull off as much or they don't get as involved in the game as they usually are, their performances are lambasted.
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I don't think anyone's arguing that he is. The only interesting Modric arguments are versus Xavi and Iniesta and then older players.
I think De Bruyne would be near the bottom of the 2nd tier of the category with Pirlo, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Vidal, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, and Xabi Alonso. Then 3rd tier would be guys with shorter peaks or just not quite as good like Silva, Yaya, Cesc, Verrati, Sneijder and Deco.
But I could see the argument for de Bruyne in tier 3, as well as moving some of those guys up and down.
No way Vidal is 2nd tier there. Would always prefer David Silva over Vidal.
Are you really saying De Bruyne is a fraud/average?
A couple of below par games for a poor national side and he's getting such disrespect.
Only capable of these numbers in a farmer's league. The moment he faces real opponents, he's like a fish out of water.
Agree, he’s a PL great and currently the best attacking midfielder on the face of the Earth.
I’ve been really surprised how people in here’ve talked about him in recent days - saying his all round game is comparable with Bruno etc and calling him a ‘system player’,
There was something up with that Belgium squad, something not right, as shown by Martínez immediate sacking (shame they didn’t replace him BEFORE the tournament…).
But KDB is an incredible player.
I can’t go along with De Bruyne being fraudulent or average.
A fair weather player however, he definitely is.