#17 | Kevin De Bruyne - 2021/22 Performances

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Needs a real striker to play up to his full potential.
 
Not fully fit
His free role has to stop as it’s leaving big gaps. Wouldn’t mind see him at false 9 this way he doesn’t have to cover as much ground
 
Had a ropey game. It happens. Why does there always have to be an excuse or overreaction to it? He's been class the last few games, he ws shit today, he will put it behind him and move on.
 
EdersonsSmiley said:
He just cannot play in midfield anymore.

I was curious about how bad his hall retention has actually become and the stats are even worse than I thought.

Over the last 365 days his pass completion is 76.7% which is in the bottom 12% of all midfielders!

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For comparison Bernardo is at 89.5% which puts him in the top 9% of midfielders.

Given Kevin can only play false 9 what happens when we go and buy a number 9 in summer, is he second choice striker? Does he move to become a wide midfielder to utilise his crossing? Do we sell him??
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First of all, that's why club shouldn't buy a number 9. Because this gives ability to rotate players and also increase game time to the ones, who aren't playing that much - when everyone is fit. For example Sterling played there, KDB plays often, even Mahrez was there once or a while.. Jesus, Palmer and etc. And what's most important, we are playing without a striker for the two seasons now (due to Aguero's absence last year) and results are the best.. Records, possibility of back-to-back PL titles and CL final, winning group stage against PSG. So my point is that, we don't need a classic or non-classic striker at all, current attacking resource is more than enough.

Also, today I think that if Walker had played and we didn't have Ake as a LB and maybe Foden as well instead of Sterling - our build-up and overall play would be better..

But in the bigger games, we will need Gundogan there anyway, so KDB should play False9, like he played it last year during the whole CL playoffs.
 
city warrior said:
Sterling performances were way worse. He did everything wrong and didn't produce anything.

KDB didn't play well today or last match, and still last match he had 2 wonderful assists(Foden's goal and Laporte's goal), and today was our biggest offensive threat(5/8 best chances were produced by him). Tell me who created more chances today? Again, he didn't play well, but he is so far from getting an easy ride from us.
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When I say he's getting an easy ride, I mean that people seem to treat every poor pass/shot as a 'rarity' based on his supposed world class status.
He's not world class anymore my opinion. He has great moments, but imo they aren't as frequent enough to justify the continued 'godlike status' that many seem to have elevated him to.
He's not a starter for me. He's been underwhelming.
 
EdersonsSmiley said:
That's sort of the point, you can't play that many risky passes as a midfielder. The risk v reward is too high.

Do it as a false 9 and it's brilliant as it doesn't really matter if you lose it near the opposition's box.
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He's played that number of risky passes since he joined. Why is it only an issue now?
 
citizen_maine said:
He's played that number of risky passes since he joined. Why is it only an issue now?
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The thing with De Bruyne is that in the past two years the team around him has changed quite a lot.

Without going into detail, it's basically a thing that without a dedicated goalscorer (or an in form Sterling) and a more methodical style of play, the weaknesses in De Bruyne's game become more visible at times.


I don't think it's a problem really. He's still largely the same player, and still incredible at creating vital opportunities.
 
one thing is clear he really lost his physical and mental regeneration he had before. he was able to play at a high level for 3 games straight in a week. but now if we do that he looks shattered in the 2nd game. but he can still reach the technical brilliance like before and he has shown that in many games this season. we just need to manage him better and pep has to have a talk with him to reduce his workload and involvement in our season overall. if we do that we can get two more useful season out of him.
 
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