Funny that people think De Bruyne is way more consistent when his passing % is lower I'm pretty sure. He's played on a side more optimal for possession the past 5-6 seasons.
Pogba vs De Bruyne: who is the better passer?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
De Bruyne's built up a reputation for being the perfect, mistake-free player by a group of people, who I suspect, don't actually watch him play.
One is plastic.
The other one isn’t.
That should basically tell you all you need to know
The other one isn’t.
That should basically tell you all you need to know
As much as I love Pogba, KDB’s consistency in his execution of that final ball is on another level. He’s one of the best incisive passer I’ve ever seen.
KdB.
Like the comparison with Scholes, this doesn't work out well for Pogba.
As an overall package as an attacking midfielder, it's closer, Pogba's physique and dribbling make him a more rounded threat, but KdB is deadly from just outside the box, whether he's shooting or crossing. But Pogba doesn't play that role, so...
Like the comparison with Scholes, this doesn't work out well for Pogba.
As an overall package as an attacking midfielder, it's closer, Pogba's physique and dribbling make him a more rounded threat, but KdB is deadly from just outside the box, whether he's shooting or crossing. But Pogba doesn't play that role, so...
Technically i think yes. Practically no, but it's MessiWhat? More than Messi?
the "aside from Messi" is implied
KdB is a way better "crosser" of the ball, Pogba may be the slightly better "passer".
Completion % isn't it. It's about making the right pass at the right time, consistently. Even if the pass doesn't come off
The key difference between them are vision and decision making, De Bruyne is just sharper
Excellently put, exactly what I was thinking but couldn’t put it into words haha
De Bruyne doesn't have better vision than Pogba, decision making or better still consistency is more what I would call it. And Pogba is a better passer of the ball than most midfielders including KDB.
Pogba's passing technique is on another level. The ball could be bouncing towards him at neck height, and he could still hit a 30 yard inch perfect pass.
Unpopular opinion: I think both players' turnover rates are far too high to be considered among the best of their generation. There were players who picked their passes much better and still created a similar amount of chances respectively created more by attempting at a similar frequency. Both haveu real highlights but people overlook how often they give the ball away.
Other than Xavi and Ozil, name one
There is also the fact Beckham was playing crosses through in a 4-4-2 from the wing predominantly. A much harder target for assists than out passing and dominating the opposition and thus at least half of De Bruynes assists are probably simple passes.
Not trying to downplay him though. I still think De Bruyne is arguably the best all round midfielders the Premiership has seen and arguably one of the best ever midfielders. He does everything to a high standard.
I personally don't think Pogba is half as good as De Bruyne and would struggle to think of many areas that he is better than De Bruyne.
Bruno is actually a better comparison. I think De Bruyne attempts more direct goal scoring opportunity passes than Pogba. The assist stats certainly back this.
Had a 20 assists season at wolfsburg...
In general, looking at numbers for assists/KP/Etc, his worst season is still better than Pogba's best. As a creative, defence-breaking passer, he's been far above Pogba for their entire careers
Comparing their numbers when they play very different positions doesn't make sense. I'd wager Pogba's assist ratio in the games he's played higher up the pitch would rival KDB.
The only way to make that comparison directly is to first have KDB spend an entire season as one of 2 DM's.
The counterpoint would be that if Pogba was that good at unlocking defences, he'd have played higher up too. I mean, his final two seasons at Juventus under Allegri, he was effectively an attacking midfielder. Same for France
He can be a great passer but a worse player. An AM position doesn’t suit Pogba but that doesn’t mean his passing ability is at a lower level
Iniesta, David Silva and Messi, maybe Neymar and Modric
7 vs 0 assists. This isn't really a debate.
David Silva and especially Vincent Kompany got the same perfect, mistake free player treatment too.
I don't disagree in general, but if you're *that* good at it, then the AM position very much suits you(and it does suit Pogba, in fact)
His passing ability is at a lower level. His passing technique is not, but ability, yeah
No, maybe, It's Messi, maybe, no
They also have the abiity to make things happen from out of nothing and in more difficult situations than the players you're thinking of. The passing technique the have is greater than all those players.
But it takes more than great passing to play in the AM position. You can almost play that position with being simply great at slide rule passes and nothing much else.
IMO Paul holds into the ball for too long when he’s playing up there and he gets lost when it’s congested. That’s nothing to do with his passing abilities.
He needs to be backing up play with options in front of him to play at his best. Even then being central and higher up limits his passing range to a large degree.
See, i agree with all of that, though i do believe Pogba is perfectly capable of being an attacking midfielder, just needs to start from slightly deeper areas. But also, if you're as great a passer as De Bruyne is, that by itself can be enough
Bolded, is why De Bruyne is a better passer than Pogba
I think Pogba is a very good player, but KDB is clearly the superior player. That can change within the next 2 seasons, Pogba's also younger. But as for now, it's not even up for a debate IMO.
Debatable.
In terms of achievements they've both achieved league titles and a CL final appearance. Pogba in a better team than KDB made a Euros final, 2 CL finals, and a World Cup. While KDB in a better team than Pogba won 3 league titles.
In terms of numbers, they don't play the same position so its hard to compare. In terms of playstyle, both top players and down to personal preference.
There's not much in them, the main obvious difference in their achievements is the level of teammates and managers they've been playing with the past few years.
Yup, and his praise continues in seasons when he's actually very inconsistent, like last year. Meanwhile Pogba's reputation for inconsistency means a string of say 6 strong performances in a row will be forgotten the second it ends, as if it didn't even happen.
I know what you're referring too - some of the passes they play look out of this world but IMO that is (also) a question of decision making, not (only) technique. You can only pull such passes off if you attempt them and many of the world's best passers don't even try because they don't want to risk turning over the ball and rather try to bring others into situations in which the likelihood of creating a chance is bigger. The differences in passing accuracy (Kroos 93%, Pogba 83%, de Bruyne 82%) don't even sound that much on paper but this means that they lose the ball twice as often as. Now the question is if that pays off and judging by the stats, not really. I think Özil is the craziest in that regard, in his prime maintaining 15+ assists, 4+ key passes per 90 and a passing accuracy >85%. Pogba and de Bruyne don't come close to this output and still have worse accuracies.
Solely looking at technique, they (Pogba even more so than de Bruyne) definitely can manipulate a football in crazy ways but Kroos, Messi, Modric (outside of the boot!) or Özil did that, too.
The majority of Kroos' assists come from set pieces(around 60% iirc). He obviously passes at a high clip but sacrifices creativity to do so. He however is one of the few players with the passing technique to match them but doesnt because he cant create time with the ball at his feet.
By passing technique im mostly reffering to the power they can pass the ba with. None of thpse players have it in them to ping the ball around like they can. Theres a reason those players dont really score spectacular goals from range.
Ozil was just seeing things that no one else could.
Yes, I know what you're referring to I think. Pogba has a remarkable technique in that regard. Bringing so much force behind the ball from difficult angles (ball bouncing at knee or even hip height), spinning the ball backwards so that the pass becomes longer and longer, much force without a real countermovement, etc. But the others do as well. Here's a quick "volley pass" video for Messi e. g. which I think is even more impressive than what Pogba does:
And Modric and Özil for instance were/are masters with the outside of the foot, at times pulling off long range passes without a countermovement, too. Kroos is also an exceptional volley taker.
Iniesta was pretty much the best incisive passer at Barcelona in the final 3rd. He and Xavi are all time great passers which is why it worked so well at Barca and Spain. They had 2 ALL TIME GREAT PASSERS. All the other pretenders of today (De Bruyne, Pogba, Coutinho) would fail miserably to replicate. I mean Coutinho looked good in England but failed to make the grade for Barca. People overrate todays guys a bit too much.
He isn't. Pogba specializes in no particular skillset except maybe deep long passes and is certainly not a master at any of the skills you think he has which is why none of his previous managers trust him as an out an out attacking midfielder and feel he is worth replacing a specialist. Guys like Ronaldinho, Kaka, Iniesta, Zidane have mastered the skills required to play in the final 3rd and are specialists so can deliver what is needed in that role consistently over 40+ games in the season. Pogba is more a jack of trades and does a lot of things WELL but people think he is Zidane and could do what Zizou does when he can't consistently.
Damn it's almost like De Bruyne has played only 11 minutes this entire season. Oh wait, he has.
Since Pogba joined United De Bruyne has 68 Premier League assists and Pogba has 36.
The main obvious difference is their consistency and also the fact that KDB is better big game player.
And if you take away the big teams they've played for, what KDB did at Wolfsburg was exceptional and i don't think that Pogba has it in him.
Also there's more pressure when you're the best player on the team, and that doesn't affect KDB while for Pogba's, it's pretty clear that he performs better when he isn't the main option (or even the 2nd option) in the team. It was the case with Juv and the French team and also at United now.
As for their positions, they're both CM/AM, only difference is that KDB can also play as a false 9. So IMO, they're very comparable.
Pogba had the best season of his career playing as an attacking midfielder
I think he was joking. At least I hope he was.