#17 | Kevin De Bruyne - 2020/21 Performances

[01282]

Say what you want about KDB but he still fashioned 2 gilt edged chances last night and as usual no one else looked like doing that.

 

[sir baconface]

He has my sympathy. Believe me, it’s frustrating to be a china cup in a sea of mugs ;)

 

[FantasyIreland]

Say what you want about KDB but he still fashioned 2 gilt edged chances last night and as usual no one else looked like doing that.

Agreed,he probably should be celebrating at least two assists today.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Disagree. Jesus doesn't fall under the same umbrella. His movement driving into the box is poor. He often fails to pick up movements from Mahrez and Kevin, giving them no opportunity to drive a low cross into the box. That movement was our staple in 17/18 with Sane and Aguero both driving into the box. Jesus is often creating spaces for others but that is simply because he is himself not a good finisher. So he's doing the next best thing which is create space for someone else who has a higher chance of scoring goals. You will never find Aguero or Lewa spending so much time outside the box. They do drag defenders and create space, but for Jesus, that seems to be his only responsibility coupled with pressing. This is not good enough.

Most goals are scored from the center of the pitch - there's only player occupying that space. You can't honestly expect Kevin to score 20 goals, he is not a striker. Come the end of the season, he will end up with more or less 10 goals which is what you would expect from a player in his position and ability. I judge Kevin's performance based on chance creation because that is his primary role in the team. He's leading the league table for "big chances created" with 10 and he's only started 10/12 games with the least amount of pre-season or break than anyone else in the squad. He's performing exceptionally.

Jesus has scored 2 goals, the same as Kevin. There are 39 players ahead of him in the league for goals scored. I'm not coming up with arbitrary metrics to judge Jesus/Kevin. You judge a striker based on goals (in which Jesus is 40th) and you judge a creative player based on chance creation (in which Kevin is 1st).

Kevin is 13th in the league for big chances missed with 4 and 4th in the league in shots taken with 40(!) shots. He deserves as much criticism as anyone for his finishing.

By comparison Jesus has had 14 shots with 2 big chances missed.

 

[sky_blue]

Kevin is 13th in the league for big chances missed with 4 and 4th in the league in shots taken with 40(!) shots. He deserves as much criticism as anyone for his finishing.

By comparison Jesus has had 14 shots with 2 big chances missed.

How in the name of god does a striker have only 14 shots? Kane has taken 46 shots and missed 3 big chances. Not significantly different from Kevin. Is Kane shit too? I mean fucking Rodri has taken 14 shots and he is a DM. This is crux of the problem isn't it? Jesus doesn't shoot, he's never in the box so people come up with shite "oh look he doesn't miss much, his shot conversion is pretty good".

Maybe he should try shooting more like every other striker has done in the history of the game. He never misses, because he never shoots. He never shoots, because is never in position to shoot. How the fuck is this guy missing from the box any time a winger is looking to drive in a low cross? Genuinely baffling.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

How in the name of god does a striker have only 14 shots? Kane has taken 46 shots and missed 3 big chances. Not significantly different from Kevin. Is Kane shit too? I mean fucking Rodri has taken 14 shots and he is a DM. This is crux of the problem isn't it? Jesus doesn't shoot, he's never in the box so people come up with shite "oh look he doesn't miss much, his shot conversion is pretty good". Maybe he should try shooting more like every other striker has done in the history of the game.

Kane has 9 goals from his 46 shots, Kevin has zero.

And yes obviously our striker should be top of the stats for the team but he has been getting next to no service. Probably not unrelated to our most creative player having 40 shit shots so far this season.

There is an argument that if Kevin could actually finish at an average level he would have scored 5-6 goals so far and put that alongside our good defense we could have turned most of our draws into wins and be top of the table.

I am not paying the blame solely at his feet but Kevin is supposed to be our best player and needs calling out at the moment as he is costing us points.

 

[sky_blue]

Kane has 9 goals from his 46 shots, Kevin has zero.

And yes obviously our striker should be top of the stats for the team but he has been getting next to no service. Probably not unrelated to our most creative player having 40 shit shots so far this season.

There is an argument that if Kevin could actually finish at an average level he would have scored 5-6 goals so far and put that alongside our good defense we could have turned most of our draws into wins and be top of the table.

I am not paying the blame solely at his feet but Kevin is supposed to be our best player and needs calling out at the moment as he is costing us points.

Okay let's do this again.

Kane has taken 46 shots and scored 9 goals.

Kevin has taken 40 shots and scored 2 goals.

That must mean that he is really poor at finishing. Okay, let's verify this.

1. If Kevin has as many shots as Kane but not scored as many goals, then he must have missed those chances. So let's check "big chances missed" stat. Kane has missed 3 and Kevin has missed 4. Not a big difference. Which means that the shots that Kevin was taking were largely speculative low quality shots - the kind of shots that would never end up in the goal anyway. Because if this theory isn't correct, then he must have missed significantly more big chances and he hasn't.

2. Just to be sure, let's verify my assertion. Kevin's npxG/shot is 0.09 which means that on average the xG for the non-penalty shots that he took was 0.09. For Kane, this number is 0.12, i.e. Kane was in positions where the shots that he took had higher xG and so therefore, you would expect those shots to convert to goals more than compared to Kevin.


So we have established that -
1. Kevin is not missing significantly higher big chances than the best striker in the league currently.
2. His shot volume stat is inflated and the reality is that he is taking shots from all the over pitch, often from positions where it's tough to score goals from. This is simply because he is a midfielder and is never in prime goalscoring positions like a striker would be in.

 

[franksinatra]

Agreed,he probably should be celebrating at least two assists today.

And the narrative would be much different. Still far and away the most decisive player in the side.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Okay let's do this again.

Kane has taken 46 shots and scored 9 goals.

Kevin has taken 40 shots and scored 2 goals.

That must mean that he is really poor at finishing. Okay, let's verify this.

1. If Kevin has as many shots as Kane but not scored as many goals, then he must have missed those chances. So let's check "big chances missed" stat. Kane has missed 3 and Kevin has missed 4. Not a big difference. Which means that the shots that Kevin was taking were largely speculative low quality shots - the kind of shots that would never end up in the goal anyway. Because if this theory isn't correct, then he must have missed significantly more big chances and he hasn't.

2. Just to be sure, let's verify my assertion. Kevin's npxG/shot is 0.09 which means that on average the xG for the non-penalty shots that he took was 0.09. For Kane, this number is 0.12, i.e. Kane was in positions where the shots that he took had higher xG and so therefore, you would expect those shots to convert to goals more than compared to Kevin.


So we have established that -
1. Kevin is not missing significantly higher big chances than the best striker in the league currently.
2. His shot volume stat is inflated and the reality is that he is taking shots from all the over pitch, often from positions where it's tough to score goals from. This is simply because he is a midfielder and is never in prime goalscoring positions like a striker would be in.

Going off your numbers Kevin should have scored 40 X 0.09 = 3.6 goals.

Kane should have scored 46 X 0.12 = 5.52

In reality Kevin has scored 0 non penalty goals and Kane has scored 7 non penalty goals. Therefore Kevin is 3.6 below expected and Kane is 1.48 above expected.

This further proves my point that Kevin's finishing has been utter shit.

 

[cleavers]

Agreed,he probably should be celebrating at least two assists today.

He should, but he was often poor last night, especially in the second half where he rarely found a blue shirt until the last 10 minutes.

It's not the first time either, he's as frustrating as the rest of the forward players at the moment for me.

Horrible game, and hard to forget.