Capital is the most important factor of Man City, but recently midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has not played as effectively as usual. The Belgian soccer star’s decline is mainly due to the tactics of coach Pep Guardiola.
De Bruyne is just a shadow of himself
When De Bruyne made the decisive pass to help rookie Erling Haaland score a brace right in the opening round of the Premier League 2022/23 (Man City beat West Ham 2-0), many people must have rushed to believe this couple was born. out for each other. Obviously, they have reason to think that Haaland will further highlight De Bruyne’s superior ball ability. Along with that, De Bruyne also became a “launching pad” for the young Norwegian striker to rise to new heights.
Undeniably, the numbers show that Bruyne still has many contributions to Man City in terms of assists, and Haaland is far ahead of rivals in the race to the title of top scorer in the Premier League. However, in reality, Bruyne is now just a shadow of himself.
Indeed, since the 2022 World Cup, the tournament in which Belgium had to stop right from the group stage, De Bruyne has played quite erratically. He appeared tired and inefficient. It is not clear whether he is still depressed because he has to leave Qatar too soon, but De Bruyne has lost his sharpness.
The proof is that in 5 matches for Man City after the 2022 World Cup, the midfielder born in 1991 only contributed to the green half of Manchester with 2 assists. One of them was a goal pass in the match Man City lost against MU with a score of 1-2 . The rest is an assist for Haaland to score in the match Blue Man crushed Wolves 3 goals did not remove.
Notably, De Bruyne has not scored in the last 12 matches for Man City. In these matches, only 2 times the former Chelsea midfielder came on from the bench. So it can be seen that basically De Bruyne is still trusted by coach Guardiola. However, what he performed on the field did not meet expectations.
As does so?
In this season, Man City has a significant difference when owning Haaland in the squad. Whenever they have the ball, they often deploy their troops in a 3-2-4-1 formation. In that system, De Bruyne’s winger, Riyad Mahrez, tends to cut into the middle.
So De Bruyne had to drift more so that the squad would not be skewed. According to statistics, the percentage of De Bruyne receiving the ball outside the wing this season is up to 35%, which is much higher than the figure of 24% last season.
The reason for such a disparity is because coach Guardiola changed the whole tactical system just to serve Haaland. When this tall player had not set foot at the Etihad, Man City often used a “virtual 9” rather than a true striker.
To have the desired number of goals, Man City require their midfielders to do a good job of attacking. When all are flexible, always swapping positions and ready to cover for each other, De Bruyne’s role as the “boss” in the midfield is extremely prominent.
Last season alone, De Bruyne showed how well he scored goals when contributing 19 goals for Man City. Since his debut, De Bruyne has never scored so many goals in a single season.
However, this season, De Bruyne has only “shot” only 3 times in every playing field. That’s the result of his often having to stick to the edge, so the opportunity to penetrate the penalty area or launch long-range shots in the middle area decreases.
Still knowing that the “goaling machine” Haaland is operating smoothly, Man City does not need De Bruyne’s shots, but the influence of the midfielder wearing the number 17 shirt is clearly no longer as prominent as before.
The above fact plus the recent frequency of De Bruyne’s assists is no longer as regular as before, which is something for coach Guardiola to worry about. When De Bruyne fell, the whole Man City team also went down from there.
Looking at the 2022/23 Premier League table, everyone can see that Man City is out of breath in the race to the championship with Arsenal. The point gap between the sides is not too large and cannot be leveled, but if Man City wants to turn the situation around, it is not simple.
In the current situation, coach Guardiola must make breakthrough moves to create significant pressure on Arsenal. One of them is how to make De Bruyne play as explosively as before, both in the ability to create and score goals.
De Bruyne is still the “king of assists”
Despite showing a decline, De Bruyne is still the “king of balls” in the Premier League this season with 11 passes leading to goals. Behind him in the list of players with the most assists in the 2022/23 Premier League is the pair Eriksen (Man United) and Saka (Arsenal) with the same 7 times helping teammates score.
