The news that this will be the final season for Kevin De Bruyne as a Manchester City player does not come as a shock. But it is still a source of sadness. The sight of De Bruyne at his very best was among the most thrilling for any fan of football.
The praise lavished on him will be as great as it is deserved. City are sure to honour him in these coming months. Opposition supporters may well do the same as he embarks on his farewell tour. Most will appreciate that he is among the Premier League’s greats.
Infamously, not everyone saw it coming. “I just don’t see this,” said Sky Sports‘ own Paul Merson when City signed him. “I do not see £50m for this player.” Phil Thompson agreed. “Absolutely bonkers. He is a good player, but is he a great player? Come on.”
But De Bruyne had already become accustomed to proving people wrong. It was only thanks to Belgium’s late developers programme that his talent was nurtured. Speaking to the country’s former academy chief Eric Abrams about it, he acknowledged as much.
“If you came to the training sessions,” Abrams told Sky Sports, “I guarantee that you would say, ‘Okay, the guy has something but for me he is not outstanding.’ We had some of our clubs who had sent some of these late developers away from their academies.”
Once De Bruyne grew into his body, the talent shone through. A title winner with Genk, that earned him a move to Chelsea and it was only his impatience for a key role that took him to Wolfsburg on loan, where he was named the Bundesliga player of the year.
At City, the world saw the best of him, a complete player, a force of nature. Technically adept with both feet, he scored a third of his Premier League goals with his supposedly weaker left foot – just think of that rocket of a shot into the top corner against Chelsea.
It was one of 29 goals from outside the area. No player over the past 15 years has scored more Premier League goals from beyond the penalty box. Teams defended deep against City but with De Bruyne around, protecting that box was no protection at all.
If David Silva was the more natural fit for the style that Guardiola had famous at Barcelona, De Bruyne reimagined it for the Premier League, fusing that controlled game with the physicality that he brought to football at his peak, overpowering opponents too.
At a slower tempo, his creativity could get City out of trouble. But when the game would speed up, he was really in his element, bestriding games, a box-to-box player for many years. And while he was capable of popping up anywhere, he had his favourite zones.
De Bruyne’s heat map and passing sonar since signing for Manchester City
The half space has become a familiar term now, referring to those channels from which angled crosses can be delivered into the box without the need to beat the full-back. No need for a player to get in behind the defence when De Bruyne can make the ball do it.
It became the De Bruyne zone, the speed and curl on those crosses – more like passes, in truth – undoing many a defence. “It is getting to a point now where you cannot allow De Bruyne into this space on the right,” Gary Neville told Sky Sports. “He is that good.”
But knowing about it and stopping it were two different things and De Bruyne continued to create. The numbers are staggering. Of course, he tops the assist charts since signing for Manchester City, a consequence of his longevity as well as his consistent brilliance.
And yet, the underlying figures are even more illuminating. The amount of big chances that he created in the Premier League for City numbers at 194 – which is 65 more than anyone else. Only four players attempted even half as many through balls in that time.
