Do people not remember City looking a bit hopeless after Pep subbed him in the CL Semis at the Bernabeu last season. He was great in both ties and City go through if he stayed on. Also had a memorable great performance and goal vs Brazil in Quarters of WC 2018.
It's overstated how much of a big game underperformer he is. He's actually pretty good in big games but there have been some high profile no shows admittedly.
I still feel Pep should shoulder most of the blame for the 2021 final for starting Gundogan. KDB didn't even have the chance to finish that game.
Also he was dropped for the first leg against Spurs in the CL in 2019 when they lost 1-0, then ended up going out on away goals in the second, but it was the first leg that cost him. Pep is a great manager but he's had some terrible calls in the CL, that CL final was a particularly dreadful call.
As for Belgium (De Bruyne has actually created the 5th most chances in the World Cup of any player since 1966), Jonathan Wilson sums it up today in the Observer:
"As Roberto Martínez tearfully announced he would not be staying on as manager, batting away questions from the media that ranged from gently disappointed to nakedly antagonistic, the temptation for an outsider was to wonder just what people expect.
"At the 2018 World Cup, Belgium played superbly to beat Brazil in the quarter-final before losing to the eventual champions, France. At Euro 2020, with Kevin De Bruyne struggling with injury, they lost their quarter-final to the eventual champions, Italy. If that is failure, very few people in any walk of life have ever been anything else. This may have been an extraordinarily gifted generation, but other countries have good players too.
"A team can play appallingly and go deep thanks to good fortune and a kind draw. Or a team can play brilliantly, delight the world, yet be defeated early in a classic against another great side, or be undone by bad luck, or implode. Denmark of 1986, all mullets and attacking vigour, linger in the consciousness as one of the great World Cup sides; the England of 2006, a sad gloop of barely distinguishable games overshadowed by the hedonism of Baden-Baden, do not: yet that England went further in the competition."
