He has yet to have a single assist to his name in the Premier League this season. It was changed in the first half against Crystal Palace last weekend. Perhaps later on the bench against Club Brugge. These are things you wouldn’t normally associate with Kevin De Bruyne. What is going on?
The Red Devil has never had a greater viral factor than Kevin De Bruyne in recent seasons.
Every week, a great pass or an exceptional goal from the Belgian goes around the world. Or a crazy statistic about the number of assists and successful passes.
This season, KDB appears lower on the timelines.
The Twitter algorithm has been teasing important tweets with negative numbers more often in recent weeks.
Wim De Coninck also noticed a difference in De Bruyne’s performance. “Kevin has regularly got an 8 or 9 out of 10 in recent years,” it sounded at De Tribune. “In the lesser matches, it was always 7. Even when it was tough, he was still finding a solution. That’s been the case a bit lately.”
No time to recover
It’s no surprise the timing – and appearance – of the decline at all.
In the past six months, De Bruyne has had to deal with some terrible injuries. And there was no time to fully recover.
Remember his head injury in the Champions League final against Chelsea. The Red Devil suffered a broken nose and eye, as well as a concussion. Injuries that have a significant impact on the body – perhaps still? – But the European Championship was just around the corner.
In the quarterfinals, De Bruyne tackled hard on his troubled ankle. Despite the stressful medical handout – torn ankle ligaments – the midfielder was relieved of pain against Italy. “It’s really a miracle that I was able to play,” he said afterwards. “But the pressure to play was great.”
In City, they couldn’t laugh at the heroic act. De Bruyne’s ankle injury put an end to his pre-season preparation.
KDB . dependency
In Manchester, they also see that their accelerator has not reached its usual high in recent weeks. Although there is no doubt that the curve will rise again soon.
Coach Pep Guardiola took charge of his group for the 1,000th time on Tuesday afternoon. “In a career as long as Kevin, with a million games, you only have highs and lows.”
“Some people forget that Kevin has only had three weeks off each season for the past 10 years. He knows better than anyone that he can do better, but he’s just human.”
Furthermore, the characters of the Red Devil are far from dramatic. Well, his trademark – the pass – has been deleted. But in terms of passes, shots and missed balls, the difference is not very big.
| 2017/2018 | 2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| matches | 52 | 32 | 48 | 40 | 12 |
| Objectives | 12 | 6 | 16 | 10 | 3 |
| helps | 21 | 10 | 22 | 18 | 1 |
| pass, pass, pass successfully | 78.0 | 65.5 | 59.0 | 56.6 | 52.6 |
| Fit Accuracy | 82.9% | 81.8% | 82.9% | 83.5% | 81.1% |
| shots | 2.8 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| lose the ball | 23.8 | 21.8 | 22.5 | 19.9 | 20.9 |
Incidentally, it is no longer the case that only De Bruyne has the keys to City. Guardiola left KDB Depencia last season with a new playing system. The buildup now runs more often across Rodri and the Cancelo-Walker duo on the wings.
With Bernardo Silva, Grealish and Foden, among others, there are also players who also want to have the ball high on the field.
“Maybe we’re too used to Kevin’s high profile,” concluded de Koninck. “If Kevin plays a regular game, we’ll mention that as well.”
They wouldn’t mind again in the club. After that, KDB may spread viral again.
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