Kevin De Bruyne - 2016/17 performances

[Neville Kneville]

The cross for Sergios header ??

Yep.

Crucial. He also put in a great cross with his left foot 2nd half which, as per usual, nobody anticipated.

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

Nothing wrong with Kev,just a few week behind everyone else.

 

[Hungarian blue]

The difference between Gundogan & DeBruyne is about 30-40 goals.

For who? :)

All I'm saying, based on this season's evidence (stupidly small sample size, I know), and on Gundogan's history, the latter is much more suited to KdB's current role in the team. He just dictates the flow much better and has a killer ball in himself as well when needed.

 

[Neville Kneville]

For who? :)

All I'm saying, based on this season's evidence (stupidly small sample size, I know), and on Gundogan's history, the latter is much more suited to KdB's current role in the team. He just dictates the flow much better and has a killer ball in himself as well when needed.

He might be better suited, but DeBruyne is in the strongest team as about the first or 2nd name. Then you find a spot for the rest. That's why he is the only player to play every game when clearly behind the rest on pre season fitness.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Nothing wrong with Kev,just a few week behind everyone else.

this, rather than the wall of text I was going to say

 

[Hungarian blue]

He might be better suited, but DeBruyne is in the strongest team as about the first or 2nd name. Then you find a spot for the rest. That's why he is the only player to play every game when clearly behind the rest on pre season fitness.

For most of the games, he should be, yeah. And I guess we won't only see this current sort of 4-1-4-1 all the time. But axing either KdB or Silva to Gundogan from time to time seems to me a logical solution/ Fernandinho is too important for this team as Gundogan never played this near to the CBs and always had some attacking freedom.

Pep even fucked off Muller in a deciding CL encounter (though it was probably a mistake, as I think even he admitted it later), so we cannot be exactly sure how this will work out.

 

[Neville Kneville]

For most of the games, he should be, yeah. And I guess we won't only see this current sort of 4-1-4-1 all the time. But axing either KdB or Silva to Gundogan from time to time seems to me a logical solution/ Fernandinho is too important for this team as Gundogan never played this near to the CBs and always had some attacking freedom.

Pep even fucked off Muller in a deciding CL encounter (though it was probably a mistake, as I think even he admitted it later), so we cannot be exactly sure how this will work out.

Oh I think we will have no option but to rotate quite a lot. It's fucking hard work Pep is asking. I'm talking purely about contribution over the season. It will likey be Aguero & DeBruyne who top the stats in the attacking 3rd, so we have to get them on the pitch as a priority when possible.

 

[Terra Passenger]

For who? :)

All I'm saying, based on this season's evidence (stupidly small sample size, I know), and on Gundogan's history, the latter is much more suited to KdB's current role in the team. He just dictates the flow much better and has a killer ball in himself as well when needed.

Gundogan is at his best playing deeper, linking play between defense and offense. I see him starting in the pivot, not behind the striker.

 

[Hungarian blue]

Gundogan is at his best playing deeper, linking play between defense and offense. I see him starting in the pivot, not behind the striker.

And did KdB play behind the striker so far? Not really. He himself described his current position as some sort of 'free 8 role'. And Gundogan's basically an '8'. You're right in that Dortmund played (possession-based) 4-2-3-1 with Gundogan as part of the double pivot, and of course we might see a change in formation once Ilkay is fit. Not that Pep uses the 4-2-3-1 too much, but he made some exceptions when he had to pick Vidal more often than not at Bayern as he's become very vital to his system.

 

[01cravend]

Fernandinho - Vidal
Silva - Gotze
Gundogan - Thiago
De Bruyne - Muller
Yaya - Xabi Alonso