Think he did his 10 day isolation in greggsWas it only me who thought he looked a stone too heavy when he came on?
Still needs a proper ‘pre-season’ by the look of things. He appeared to be in pretty poor shape
Have you not been paying attention marvHe looked really poor when he came on. I had assumed that this season would be like last for KDB but he needs to kick on now. What is the problem? Underlying injury? Why can't he just get fit?
Stop blaming his international manager for his issues, the problem is the player.KDB needs a spell on the bench , his fitness levels are miles away thanks to injuries and thanks to Martinez flogging him to death , he even played him for 90 minutes in a dead rubber game against Wales recently , maybe Pep should have a quiet word with Martinez.
At 30 years old his fitnness / stamina will be on the decline for the rest of his contract , but if we can get him fully fit there is at least a couple more seasons of top level football in Kev , hopefully with players like Palmer & MAtee showing promise his replacement will come from our academy saving the £100m it will cost to replace KDB.
stop blaming international manager and then in the next sentence he may have to retire from internationals , slightly contradictory , but agree with your sentiment ,maybe the 2022 world cup should be his last for belgium and concentrate on prolonging his club career.Stop blaming his international manager for his issues, the problem is the player.
He is burnt out physically and mentally, from playing far too much, he is not and has never been a natural athlete.
If he wants to get back to world class levels he may well have to retire from Internationals, with a world cup on the horizon there is zero chance of that.
Fitness is his issue or lack of it, sadly I think we have seen the best of him as a box to box free roaming player.
Why, when everyone is blaming the International manager and not the player?stop blaming international manager and then in the next sentence he may have to retire from internationals , slightly contradictory , but agree with your sentiment ,maybe the 2022 world cup should be his last for belgium and concentrate on prolonging his club career.
The manager picks the team.Why, when everyone is blaming the International manager and not the player?
KDB is clearly a very proud Belgium, who clearly wants to play for his country, even when seriously injured and needing medication for pain, who's fault is that?
And if the player is unfit , he can refuse to playThe manager picks the team.
The manager picks the team.
The player playing when not fit is surely doing himself, his team and reputation a serious mis-service , however loyal he may be.
If I were his manager/advisor , I would be telling him that he needs to put his own future career at the head of the considerations, for club and/or country, before playing when not fit enough and suffering longer term injury .
Nobody benefits if he just ignores injury and plays on.
You can see, from the balls he tried to play vs Wolves, that the grey matter is still working at the same high level, it’s just that the body isn’t in the shape it needs to be to make the most of it. Kev needs fitness and game time to get back to his best - I’m certainly not writing him off.
The problem we have is: where do you give him that game time? He’s the kind of talent that you have to find time for on the pitch, because of what he can do, but we have Bernardo looking like the second coming. Better problems to have but problems all the same.
An unfit De Bruyne saved our ass at AnfieldAn unfit De Bruyne just isn't worth playing. He plays on the limit. Bursting forwards and playing outrageous passes. But when they don't come off he can be a risk to the balance of our side because he gives the ball away more than usual. We have never struggled to win games without De Bruyne. In tight games when you need something special that's when he can step up and create from nothing, but every time he's been out we've been okay. It's an odd scenario because when he's fit he's clearly the best player in our squad. Yet I'd argue we'd lose more games if we were missing other players than we do without Kev.
He scored via a deflection, he wasn't particularly great that day.An unfit De Bruyne saved our ass at Anfield
Maybe, just maybe, the medical team at City qualified to make these decisions have deemed it best he gets some more intense minutes under his belt to recover, than say just training sessions?The player playing when not fit is surely doing himself, his team and reputation a serious mis-service , however loyal he may be.
If I were his manager/advisor , I would be telling him that he needs to put his own future career at the head of the considerations, for club and/or country, before playing when not fit enough and suffering longer term injury .
Nobody benefits if he just ignores injury and plays on.
Doesn’t matter he still scored by being in the right place and getting a decent enough hit towards goal. The better players do tend to score deflections as they arrive when they’re supposed to.He scored via a deflection, he wasn't particularly great that day.