Kevin De Bruyne

2mufc0

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Best in the world full stop atm.
 

cyberman

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Great player but that was shit defending for his dribble that set up Jesus goal.
 

matherto

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He needs to play like that for the rest of the season.

If he does I don't see City dropping points and the title race is still on.
 
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Comet49

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Not only is Bruyne a great player he’s only in the news for his football. Wonder what his transfer would be if he wanted to go.
 

Bwuk

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He’s the best midfielder of his generation.

I remember posting on here about wanting to sign him when he was at Wolfsburg. One of the most talented players I’ve ever seen.
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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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.
He was coming off winning PotY in the Bundesliga! He had 3.5 years left on his contract! It was an indefensible move then and in retrospect ludicrously so.
 

Ramos

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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.
Yeah, had that feeling too. So i took a look at the numbers in detail and it's actually shocking how little he featured.

3 of those 9 games were CL games in which he played 26 minutes, all 3 combined! Then 3 PL games, 2 starts in which he played about an hour each and a 5 min cameo in the other game. The other 3 were EFL cup games.

He only played 158 minutes in a Chelsea shirt in PL + European games!
 

izec

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His half way low cross/pass or however you want to call it is already a trademark. He does them in sleep
 

billybee99

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He's the best midfielder in the world. I don't even think you can argue it.
You obviously don't spend much time here. There are people on the Cafe that would look you straight in the eye and tell you that Pogba is better. I shite you not. In fact, I imagine a few will pop up to counter this very post.
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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I still don't get it, I vividly remember when he tore us apart in the charity shield being like wow what a player
Especially because he had 3.5 years left on his contract when Chelsea sold him to Wolfsburg for 18m - there was no pressure to sell him except Mourinho had made up his mind and wouldn't be budged. Mou's PR team tried to spin it at the time and after the fact ("KdB didn't train well!!") but the sale was indefensible at the time and is obviously an utter catastrophe in retrospect.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Mourinho pushed for the sale; KdB's talent was so obvious even then. Axing Salah was far more defensible as he still seemed a very raw prospect and no one would anticipate his development at Roma and then again at Liverpool, but KdB's class was apparent to anyone who watched him.

Mourinho will always have a place in my heart given all he did to make Chelsea relevant during his first spell, but his treatment of KdB and Lukaku did so much to set the club back. It was typical Mourinho shortsightedness and it has haunted Chelsea for a generation.
 

BlueMoonOutcast

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You obviously don't spend much time here. There are people on the Cafe that would look you straight in the eye and tell you that Pogba is better. I shite you not. In fact, I imagine a few will pop up to counter this very post.
I understand bias and Pogba is very talented but yeah, De Bruyne is in a class all by himself I think.

Whats the record now?
It's 20, set by Henry. De Bruyne needs six to equal it and he has 16 games to do it (assuming he's fit).
 

El-Manos

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You obviously don't spend much time here. There are people on the Cafe that would look you straight in the eye and tell you that Pogba is better. I shite you not. In fact, I imagine a few will pop up to counter this very post.
Maybe 2-3 years ago. Right now, I would imagine very few people would make such a claim. KDB is undoubtedly number 1 midfielder in the world right now.
 

Pexbo

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Comparing him to Fabregas, who would you say was the better player?
KDB for me and by a reasonable margin.

If KDB circa now joined Barcelona in 2011 like Fàbregas did, I’ve absolutely no doubt that he would have made them rethink that midfield and find room for all four of them.
 

tjb

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Comparing him to Fabregas, who would you say was the better player?
Him. Fabregas did not have this level of consistent high level. For me, other epl legends achieved more than debruyne but I honestly do not believe that any of them are as effective as DeBruyne. This is a legitimate top 5 player in the world and even though Lampard and Gerrard did get those 2nd and third place Ballon D'or awards, De Bruyne is the one midfielder that I actually feel is a top 5 player in the world.
 

tjb

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Kroos? Probably
Its Debruyne, but I would say the hype around Modric hurt Kroos' reputation somewhat. I always felt he was better and more effective than Modric yet somehow Modric won the Ballon D'or. I even thought he was better in both league and champions league in the very season that Debruyne won it. The game by game statistical websites display this point as well. I would put him second and Thiago Alcantara third.
 

MrEleson

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Its Debruyne, but I would say the hype around Modric hurt Kroos' reputation somewhat. I always felt he was better and more effective than Modric yet somehow Modric won the Ballon D'or. I even thought he was better in both league and champions league in the very season that Debruyne won it. The game by game statistical websites display this point as well. I would put him second and Thiago Alcantara third.
nah no way Kroos is better than Modric when both are on their best day. Even Madrid fans would disagree with you on that one.
 

Dancfc

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Especially because he had 3.5 years left on his contract when Chelsea sold him to Wolfsburg for 18m - there was no pressure to sell him except Mourinho had made up his mind and wouldn't be budged. Mou's PR team tried to spin it at the time and after the fact ("KdB didn't train well!!") but the sale was indefensible at the time and is obviously an utter catastrophe in retrospect.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Mourinho pushed for the sale; KdB's talent was so obvious even then. Axing Salah was far more defensible as he still seemed a very raw prospect and no one would anticipate his development at Roma and then again at Liverpool, but KdB's class was apparent to anyone who watched him.

Mourinho will always have a place in my heart given all he did to make Chelsea relevant during his first spell, but his treatment of KdB and Lukaku did so much to set the club back. It was typical Mourinho shortsightedness and it has haunted Chelsea for a generation.
Fully agree with KDB but disagree regarding Lukaku.

He would only stay if we abandoned the signing of Costa and made him undisputed number one, and I've never particularly liked his game anyway. Wouldn't want him back today and felt like that even before Tammy emerged.

As much of a criminal mistake KDB was, selling Lukaku and signing Diego Costa was more than justified.
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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Fully agree with KDB but disagree regarding Lukaku.

He would only stay if we abandoned the signing of Costa and made him undisputed number one, and I've never particularly liked his game anyway. Wouldn't want him back today and felt like that even before Tammy emerged.

As much of a criminal mistake KDB was, selling Lukaku and signing Diego Costa was more than justified.
I agree that Costa was the superior player and certainly selling Lukaku to bring him in wasn't on par with the atrocious decision to sell KdB. But I always thought the reports that Lukaku insisted on being the number 1 were overblown - his chief concern was playing in the World Cup, and honestly who were Belgium going to select in front of him? Especially given Costa's injury record with Atleti and subsequently with Chelsea Lukaku must have known he'd get plenty of minutes. In addition, I reckon that had Lukaku taken the opportunity to learn from Costa he'd be a better player now.
 

giorno

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nah no way Kroos is better than Modric when both are on their best day. Even Madrid fans would disagree with you on that one.
Eeeeeeeh. Yes, but it's a lot closer than you'd think. Well not on their best day, no, but in general

And we're talking peak Modric here, right? Not right now...right now modric isn't fit to tie kroos's shoes
 
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Icemav

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You obviously don't spend much time here. There are people on the Cafe that would look you straight in the eye and tell you that Pogba is better. I shite you not. In fact, I imagine a few will pop up to counter this very post.
I'll bite not that I am necessarily one of those people.

I think I remember seeing in the last 2 seasons there were times Pogba had more goals and assists, whilst playing for an inferior team. That probably had something to do with it.

One thing is for sure, a fully fit KDB is better than an injured Pogba.
 

Prometheus

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I'll bite not that I am necessarily one of those people.

I think I remember seeing in the last 2 seasons there were times Pogba had more goals and assists, whilst playing for an inferior team. That probably had something to do with it.

One thing is for sure, a fully fit KDB is better than an injured Pogba.
Out of the two, I think KdB is more suited to a non-top team. He was incredible in Germany. I've no doubt though if Pogba was playing for City that he too would be doing filthy stuff right now. Besides, anyone that goes to United has been dropping a level or two for various reasons, so there's been that too I suppose.
 

Dancfc

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I agree that Costa was the superior player and certainly selling Lukaku to bring him in wasn't on par with the atrocious decision to sell KdB. But I always thought the reports that Lukaku insisted on being the number 1 were overblown - his chief concern was playing in the World Cup, and honestly who were Belgium going to select in front of him? Especially given Costa's injury record with Atleti and subsequently with Chelsea Lukaku must have known he'd get plenty of minutes. In addition, I reckon that had Lukaku taken the opportunity to learn from Costa he'd be a better player now.
The Costa transfer was just after the world cup, to which Rom went and trained with Anderlect until he got his move away, he pulled the same trick at United once it became clear he actually had to fight for his place under OGS instead of having it guarenteed as was the case under Jose. His ego is far too big for the calibre of player he is and I wasn't fussed atall about seeing him go and was delighted he didn't return.

Looking back signing him back in 2011 was a weird one, we were starting to focus on technically pleasing nimble young players and Rom was the complete opposite of that, did we actually sign him purely because he was a Chelsea fan?
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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The Costa transfer was just after the world cup, to which Rom went and trained with Anderlect until he got his move away, he pulled the same trick at United once it became clear he actually had to fight for his place under OGS instead of having it guarenteed as was the case under Jose. His ego is far too big for the calibre of player he is and I wasn't fussed atall about seeing him go and was delighted he didn't return.

Looking back signing him back in 2011 was a weird one, we were starting to focus on technically pleasing nimble young players and Rom was the complete opposite of that, did we actually sign him purely because he was a Chelsea fan?
Ah you're right, got my timeline mixed up