Kevin De Bruyne

Righteous Steps

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The lie is in the exaggeration, he might be better, but completely different level is rubbish, he loses the ball more than Gerrard did in terms of short passing, probably has a better final pass, but isn't as good in terms of mid long range passing
 

RooneyLegend

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The lie is in the exaggeration, he might be better, but completely different level is rubbish, he loses the ball more than Gerrard did in terms of short passing, probably has a better final pass, but isn't as good in terms of mid long range passing
this
 

adexkola

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The lie is in the exaggeration, he might be better, but completely different level is rubbish, he loses the ball more than Gerrard did in terms of short passing, probably has a better final pass, but isn't as good in terms of mid long range passing
Do the stats suggest this?
 

andyox

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In the KDB vs. Pogba comparison, we always seem to define a player in terms of talent and application. In terms of overall effectiveness it's almost a pointless comparison because there's such a chasm between them, but the discussion on talent seems to be where there's some disagreement.

To me talent can be further split into technical ability and football IQ. You could have football IQ as a separate third category, but I think it fits better within the discussion on talent -- Pogba is a great example of the fact that it's hard to teach/coach football IQ, so I see it as a talent. You can describe Pogba as talented if you're only focusing on technical ability, because he does have an excellent passing range. His problem is that his technical ability is so critically undermined, in terms of effectiveness, by his lack of football IQ and application. KDB has all three qualities in spades, and that's what makes him brilliant. I don't think it makes sense for the Pogba fans to continually try to defend him by going down the talent route (referring only to technical ability), it's probably the least important part of what makes a great footballer.
 

BridgeBanter

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I don't think so, not the same level as those two. Especially when considering the last year (partly Sarri's fault though). At his best he could be on that "Tier 1b" level with Aguero
I disagree. Kante at his best is comfortably in the top of the tier.
 

Sandikan

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They play Liverpool and Chelsea back to back in mid November, with a fairly decent run until then

Get the ex Barcelona doc's magic hands out and he could well be back I dare say.
 

sullydnl

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Says a lot about how much City have dropped off this season that they're out of the title race even having had this guy return to the team this season. Light years ahead of any other midfielder in the league.
 

Gentleman Jim

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Plays a high risk/reward brand of football. When things drop right for him looks phenomenal. Today is one of those days (so far).
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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Selling him was probably the single stupidest thing Chelsea have done in recent history (which is saying a lot). Mourinho pushing to sell him when he still had 3.5 years left on his contract was indefensible at the time and in retrospect is now a fecking trainwreck.
 

tentan

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Selling him was probably the single stupidest thing Chelsea have done in recent history (which is saying a lot). Mourinho pushing to sell him when he still had 3.5 years left on his contract was indefensible at the time and in retrospect is now a trainwreck.
Not really. He wasn't good enough for them at the time and Chelsea won the League a couple of times since.
 

harms

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Not really. He wasn't good enough for them at the time and Chelsea won the League a couple of times since.
I was quite lucky that I had checked wiki before replying, he only played 9 games for Chelsea! For some reason I remember seeing him performing quite well for them but now I think that my mind is playing tricks on me.

Still. Selling Salah made sense at the time (although, hindsight); selling De Bruyne didn't, he was clearly an outstanding talent & Mata was on his way out and they had Oscar as their number 9. Mourinho though.