Kevin De Bruyne 2016/17

[Walking on the blue moon]

Any dip in performance level can almost always be associated with playing him in his unfavoured position,on the wing.

Play him centrally,as a 10,and the lad is generally world class.

Its akin to playing Zabaleta at centrehalf,watching him struggle in an unnatural position,and then suggesting he too is 'inconsistent'

Comical.

Agreed. Generally he delivers at least an 8/10 performance as a No. 10, but the level immediately dropped to about 5/10 when he played in the wing.

I don't understand why this is the case though. When he played in the wing, not only was his threat nullified, but he also made a lot more mistakes. There were more sloppy passes and failed Hollywood passes for instance. It was as if he left most of his skill set at home. If he had never played that position before, then it wouldn't be much of an issue. Such mediocre performances can easily be attributed to nerves. But he did play in the wings sometimes for Genk (or is it Werder Bremen?) before, right? And I heard he excelled in that role. (Forgive me if I remembered that wrongly. That was something I saw on this forum last October/November.) So what made his bad habits appear when he played on the wing? Coach instructions? Something to do with him being right-footed? Bad memories? Frustrations?

It is understandable that players felt miserable playing in their unnatural positions, there's nothing wrong with that. But in Kevin's case it really seemed a bit extreme.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

He's a counterattacking player and frequently fucks things up when he's given more than two seconds to decide what to do.

I love the guy but he needs to learn to concentrate and recycle possession when appropriate. If he can do that, then he'll be one of the best in the world.

 

[Shaelumstash]

You made the reference to inconsistency.not me .you have more or less confirmed that now with your over long answer.cheers for that.

I think you're getting in a bit of a muddle here. Look at the title of the thread. Then look at your post on page 71 where you pass comment on inconsistency.

 

[City_Sean]

He needs to be surrounded with pace on either side, playing him wide completely nullified him.

 

[Sir peace frog]

Playing wide he's done it all his career is there a better crosser ?,do agree he looks better in the middle but sometimes the easiest of balls he fucks up ; as for him usually getting a 5/10 on the wing that's Fucking laughable

 

[Mike N]

Weird how some fans want a top-notch performance from him week in, week out. Is there a footballer out there who hits the highest consistency every game?

 

[Cityfan]

Weird how some fans want a top-notch performance from him week in, week out. Is there a footballer out there who hits the highest consistency every game?

It'd be a lot weirder if fans didn't want a top notch performance week in week out.
We might not always get it but it's definitely what we want.
The best footballers hit the highest points most often by definition, I actually think KDB is pretty consistent.

 

[stonerblue]

Any dip in performance level can almost always be associated with playing him in his unfavoured position,on the wing.

Play him centrally,as a 10,and the lad is generally world class.

Its akin to playing Zabaleta at centrehalf,watching him struggle in an unnatural position,and then suggesting he too is 'inconsistent'

Comical.

Spot on. I can recall three 'average' performances from him, all when on the right wing.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Any dip in performance level can almost always be associated with playing him in his unfavoured position,on the wing.

Play him centrally,as a 10,and the lad is generally world class.

Its akin to playing Zabaleta at centrehalf,watching him struggle in an unnatural position,and then suggesting he too is 'inconsistent'

Comical.

I don't actually see any problem with him being on the wing as long as he has a front man who can feed off his delivery.

He was hardly at his best against Italy but most of his poor moments happened in the first half with Lukaku offering absolutely nothing in terms of getting in space and making runs in behind. Even with De Bruyne's relatively poor performance, he played at least two brilliant passes which should have produced goals but for the awful finishing from Lukaku and Origi.

It was a similar situation last year on a couple of occasions with us appearing unwilling to commit numbers into the box. He's one of the best crossers in the world and a more traditional centre forward would thrive off of that. He made Bas Dost look like a goal machine at Wolfsburg from both wide and central positions.

I think it was the right time for him to leave but I dare say Dzeko would have also snapped up the chances as he was clearly crying out for a player of De Bruyne's ilk to supply him during his time here.

Kevin can easily play anywhere in the last third of the pitch but I think he needs license to roam rather than have a fixed position.

 

[borassic]

He's a counterattacking player and frequently fucks things up when he's given more than two seconds to decide what to do.

I love the guy but he needs to learn to concentrate and recycle possession when appropriate. If he can do that, then he'll be one of the best in the world.

Think that's more of the fact he's always looking for that killer ball. I'd rather he tried them than played it simple personally as apart from him we are very predictable.