17 | Kevin De Bruyne - 2023/24

[warringtonblue]

Seemed an odd decision to start him given the pre-season minutes but if it was going to happen the silver lining is the transfer window is still open and it will likely force our hand to strengthen in attack.

We usually manage to cope surprisingly well without him in the past, hopefully the same again.

We had Gundo previously

 

[kaz7]

This is where we miss gundy

 

[Cricket Blue]

Crazy decision to start him last night
That's costs us weeks now sadly.

 

[jimharri]

Crazy decision to start him last night
That's costs us weeks now sadly.

Hindsight is great. But yeah, it was ludicrous to play him last night. No disrespect to Burnley, but if we couldn't beat them without Kev, questions would need to have been asked.

 

[St.Pauli support]

Hes not played competitive football for nearly 2 months. Do you not think he was assessed before Sunday and last night by citys highly qualified medical staff or are you just playing the hindsight expert here?
How do you not know the plan was to take him off after 55 minutes or so?

Well, that has worked out well then.

All I say is, I (!) wouldn't have started him as he looked tortured end of the season and didn't look good in Asia.
If our squad can't beat Burnley w/o Kev we have a huge problem anyway. If it was 0-0 after 70 mins I would have brought Kev on and yes, maybe the same would have happened.

But the chance was there to win before and rest Kev instead of rushing him in after a hammy he had over WEEKS, as he said.

I feel this may be his last season here. His biggest asset for us isn't his passionate running (he just won't stop, the little dickhead) we want his creative pinpoint assists, his stunning passes from nowhere.

He has to adapt his game to his tortured body and concentrate on his best skills. If that doesn't come off anymore, he honestly isn't of much use for us - and we have already seen some moments of that last season. I honestly do suffer watching him in pain and therefore I want to see him managed with even more perfection.

You can say what you want, starting last night was 100% unnecessary.

 

[warringtonblue]

Well, that has worked out well then.

All I say is, I (!) wouldn't have started him as he looked tortured end of the season and didn't look good in Asia.
If our squad can't beat Burnley w/o Kev we have a huge problem anyway. If it was 0-0 after 70 mins I would have brought Kev on and yes, maybe the same would have happened.

But the chance was there to win before and rest Kev instead of rushing him in after a hammy he had over WEEKS, as he said.

I feel this may be his last season here. His biggest asset for us isn't his passionate running (he just won't stop, the little dickhead) we want his creative pinpoint assists, his stunning passes from nowhere.

He has to adapt his game to his tortured body and concentrate on his best skills. If that doesn't come off anymore, he honestly isn't of much use for us - and we have already seen some moments of that last season. I honestly do suffer watching him in pain and therefore I want to see him managed with even more perfection.

You can say what you want, starting last night was 100% unnecessary.

He could just as easily done the same thing in training or coming on as a sub. I'm sure it wasnt a decision taken lightly to start him.

You are commenting here with the benefit of hindsight

 

[ManCityGR!]

Crazy decision to start him last night
That's costs us weeks now sadly.

According to Pep, KDB according to doctors was perfectly fine to play and he was also feeling and doing in training perfectly well so he played.
But all these perfectly well, were apparently wrong. Let's just hope he will miss only 1 month or so and not 3+.

We need him to fully recover this time so I hope they are extra extra careful.
Another thing is KDB seems a little being from glass material more and more often last seasons and this is worrying but with extra care he can provide a good season.

Unfortunately he is our only player with frequent attacking ideas in offense, we definitely lack this thing now Gungogan left. We have only KDB left as a player with creativity and attacking urgency and ideas and forward passes. All others lack ideas or forward urgency. Hopefully we will fix this.

 

[Mad_fer_it]

All you can go off is the player's honest feedback. He said to Pep and everyone else he felt 100%. If KDB says he's 100%, he's experienced and mature enough to know when he's being honest with himself (I'd like to think anyway).

What manager in world would deny him if this is what he relayed?

Maybe is was a mistake but he was never to know. He'll back and better than ever soon.

 

[Len Rum]

After the CL final Kev said that his hamstring had snapped.
That's a three month recovery period , return date early September.
He only did light training on the Asian tour which seemed consistent with a return by this date.
So criticism of the early return IMO is not hindsight.
We can only assume KDB and the medical staff agreed to the earlier return but surely there was a strong case for caution?

 

[St.Pauli support]

He could just as easily done the same thing in training or coming on as a sub. I'm sure it wasnt a decision taken lightly to start him.

You are commenting here with the benefit of hindsight

Nope I don't. Look at my starting line-up in the Guess-the-team thread. I have Kev on the bench for exactly the reasons I stated in epic length. Thanks.