Funny that because he didn't even play against Sevilla. It was arguably our best performance of the season. Certainly the best we've played on the counter which is DeBruyne's speciality, and he was dropped for that game.
First 5 games of the season, 5 wins, 0 conceeded. No DeBruyne.
Other than those 6 games our best performances were against Chelsea away and Newcastle at home which he played in both. He was awful in the first half against Newcastle.
So out of our 8 best performances of the season he's played in one and a half of them. Yet people say he is an automatic first choice. Strange.
Few things wrong with this post. You're assuming those first 5 games were our best of the season just because we won them without conceding? Also De Bruyne did actually play about 80 minutes in the Palace game, and all of the Newcastle game; don't see how you've given him half a game just because the whole team didn't play well in that half, he was great in the 2nd half so does that count as 2 games?Funny that because he didn't even play against Sevilla. It was arguably our best performance of the season. Certainly the best we've played on the counter which is DeBruyne's speciality, and he was dropped for that game.
First 5 games of the season, 5 wins, 0 conceeded. No DeBruyne.
Other than those 6 games our best performances were against Chelsea away and Newcastle at home which he played in both. He was awful in the first half against Newcastle.
So out of our 8 best performances of the season he's played in one and a half of them. Yet people say he is an automatic first choice. Strange.
He was poor but with 4-5 new good players next season he will shine.
Correlation isn't causation.
And you fail to mention his 2 month absence and how your theory falls apart.
My biggest gripe is his lack of workrate last night, he's usually chasing everything down. I think there is a chance that he might be ill or be carrying a slight injury because that isn't his game at all.
Few things wrong with this post. You're assuming those first 5 games were our best of the season just because we won them without conceding? Also De Bruyne did actually play about 80 minutes in the Palace game, and all of the Newcastle game; don't see how you've given him half a game just because the whole team didn't play well in that half, he was great in the 2nd half so does that count as 2 games?
So he actually played 3 matches of the 8 you've suggested are our best of the season.
Not got much of an opinion on your point of view, but skewing statistics to suit your cause just shows the bias you have.
He may well have been inconsistent, but I doubt we can name a player who's actually been consistent this season. He's got something like 15 goals 15 assists in his first season here hasn't he? That's why he should be in the team for me, far more end product than most of our guys currently (Navas/Silva/Sterling/Nasri).
My point stands though, if you're going to say "that half doesn't count as he was bad", then surely there must be a "that half counts doubly as he was great"? Otherwise you're just creating a platform to give him negative marks without the chance of recovering. I know you're not actually going to do a full table of his good & bad games with +'s & -'s but you get my point. Doing so makes you appear bias in one direction (which I fear you are).The reason I'm not giving him the full Newcastle game is because he was terrible the first half. The team was terrible in the first half, and my view is that he was the major problem.
I've posted about it at length on here. We started the game with De Bruyne at 10 and Silva right wing. DeBruyne was very similar to last night, anonymous, hiding behind players, not wanting the ball, scared.
Then on about 30 minutes we switched Silva and DeBruyne and it was like the bit in The Wizard of Oz when the world goes from black and white to full colour.
Silva instantly started making angles to ask for the ball to feet. Giving us an option of a pass from midfield. On the half turn looking to create chances. Knitting the whole team together, giving us a structure and pattern to our play. We scored 6 goals in 20 minutes. So you'll forgive me if I don't credit DeBruyne with the full game because in my opinion he was the major reason we were getting outclassed by Newcastle in the first 30 minutes.
DeBruyne is great when he's essentially giving a free role at number 10, given zero defensive responsibility and he's playing against a team that allows him a ton of space. At all other times, he's been rather inconsistent.
I think there is a chance that he might be ill or be carrying a slight injury because that isn't his game at all.
Funnily enough mate, I'm glad you brought his injury up. We went on a bad run of form while he was in the team, he got injured, we continued on that bad run of form and people assumed it was all down to us "missing DeBruyne".
But do you know what our win percentage was without DeBruyne in the side up until that point? I do, it was 100%. Go and check it out.
Our form with him in the side was very patchy at best, yet when he got injured, Roy Keane, Alan Shearer, the whole DeBruyne fan club on here, started making the point that our season went down hill because we can't play without DeBruyne.
Total nonsense.
I'm extremely surprised you say "He's usually chasing everything down" I assume you mean for Wolfsburg and Belgium? He's certainly not "chased everything down" in a City shirt. In fact, it's the main source of criticism of him, even from his biggest fans.
Far from last night "not being his game", he's had plenty of games just as anonymous as last night. The derby away, West Ham away, Everton away in the league cup being just 3 examples off the top of my head. All insipid, pathetic, anonymous performances where he chased nothing down and didn't want to be anywhere near the ball.
He's capable of incredible things, capable of winning matches on his own. But let's not pretend he's been a world beater in every game and chases down every lost cause, dying for the team and last night in Madrid was a one off. It wasn't. He's had just as many anonymous games in a City shirt as he has world beating ones.