da supremo： Kevin De Bruyne’s ascendance into becoming the most influential figure within the best team to grace the Premier League for many a year has naturally been accompanied with a welter of plaudits. By now, it probably amounts to a thousand articles in a thousand publications. This is another one to add to the ever expanding list.
da bet sport： Only this one is a touch different. This one is from a Blue and from the heart.
With that in mind let’s skip the obvious stuff, the well-trawled CV that includes a stint at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho that swiftly turned sour. Let’s by-pass too the reviving of his reputation in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. Let’s even omit the quite extraordinary stats that the Belgian schemer has accrued in his time at City, especially this season where the 26-year-old has been central to every wonderful creation that Manchester City has placed before us.
If you’re not aware of any of the above then frankly you’ve presumably been living under a rock these past few years. And if you have been living under a rock, then you probably have greater things on your mind; if not, there are a thousand articles to explore.
I liked De Bruyne immediately. On his signing for the club on August 30th 2015 – after a protracted chase that saw Wolfsburg understandably dig their heels in until the money offered got silly – he seemed shy, down to earth, and wore the kind of jeans favoured by eighties Eurotrash. The perception that came from his interviews and even the neutral gaze was here was a player who was going to keep his head down and do his talking on the pitch.
An initial injury kept the Etihad faithful waiting until mid-September for their new star to feature and when he did it took him just a week to get off the mark. Three days later he was at it again with a further eight following until the season’s end along with nine assists. This was Manuel Pellegrini’s third and final campaign as City boss and though it can safely be described overall as a damp squib, in De Bruyne and the erratic flourishes of Raheem Sterling there were grounds enough for excitement. When the appointment of Pep Guardiola was announced in February that excitement was ratcheted up to veritable giddiness.
Guardiola embraced De Bruyne from the off saying in September 2016: “I think he is a special, outstanding player. He makes everything. Without the ball he is the first fighter, and with the ball he is clear – he sees absolutely everything”. At the heart of every great team lies a visceral relationship between the coach and a particular player and in more primitive times the player in question was said to be his gaffer’s ‘eyes and ears’ on the pitch. Now, in the nuanced and patterned environs of modern football, he is the mindset and in De Bruyne the Spanish Grandmaster has an astute reader of the game that he can implicitly trust with the conductor’s baton. The importance of that cannot be under-stated. The importance of that almost casts the Belgian’s sublime footballing contribution to a secondary consideration.
Almost but not quite. Since his return to the Premier League with a point to prove De Bruyne has been consistently sensational and the measure of that impact can perhaps best be illustrated by his rare poor games. Because even in these he makes the difference; he will ping a perfect delivery that decides a tight fixture late on after flattering to deceive for the opening 80 minutes or curl-drive a 20-yarder beyond the reach of a previously stubborn keeper.
Elsewhere, on form, there has arguably been nobody better offensively in the top flight this season and for much of last. Now deployed in a deeper, pivotal role his 360 vision makes sense of Guardiola’s intricate blueprint, making it linear and devastatingly fluid all at the same time, while his movement off the ball takes him into areas that makes man-marking City’s main man a futile endeavour. The man is everywhere and nowhere; knitting things together, ambling and roaming before the inevitable sucker-punch of being stationed in an acre of space outside of the opposition box. The resulting accuracy of a pinpoint through-ball or net-finder should never be taken for granted but is fast becoming so.
There are a great many things to love and admire about Kevin De Bruyne but for me personally it’s the contradiction of how he plays and how he looks as he plays. These two opposing facets should jar, yet they sync together beautifully. He lollops with a demeanour that suggests scruffy toil. His face is red and flustered. His face is never less than a study of concern. Yet with the ball at his feet all is graceful, all is precise. It shouldn’t make sense and long may that confuse me.