SykikJV

I like Oscar, but I never really seen him play as a playmaker? He's playing in the number 10 position, but he's more the scoring type of playmaker then a real playmaker, isn't he?

Currently there's a tv-show in Belgium about our national team players. Every episode is about one player. De Bruyne and his grand-dad also talked about his 6 months with Chelsea : - his grand-dad asked him if he ever talked to Mourinho about his lack of game-time. De Bruyne answered : "you don't talk to Mourinho, Mourinho only talks to you". - his coach from Genk said in the same episode that he enjoyed the talks he had with De Bruyne about team tactics and football in general. They didn't always agree, he said with a little smile, but he liked the fact that a young player showed a bit of character. - in december Mourinho asked KDB to stay at Chelsea, but KDB said that he wanted to play football and he didn't believe he would get sufficiant game-time at Chelsea. - his manager said that De Bruyne has absolutely no clue about his wage or the money on his bank-account, the only thing that matters to him is playing football. De Bruyne is a player that needs game-time to play his best and natural game and Chelsea was the first time in his life when he wasn't getting it. You can only say that the time for KDB at Chelsea wasn't right. Chelsea clearly didn't believe in him enough to not buy Willian and KDB wasn't prepared to wait for his chance at Chelsea. Too bad KDB only could show his best in the first game against Hull.

He's getting back to his best form. At some moments in the game he was absolutely genius. Involved in every chance Belgium created and at times Sweden were making desperate fouls to try to stop him. Wilmots said he's the engine in the national team and he's abolutely right, one of the few players that's really unreplacable for us. His vision and workrate has been crucial.

Maybe Chelsea wanted Lewandowski in the summer or in january, while Dortmund wanted to hold on to him for this season?

Was a bit more decisive in yesterdays game against Wolfsburg. Created the first penalty and was involved in the counter-attack that led to the second penalty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQU4uPKHhGE

Has barely played the last few months. I've said it a million times, De Bruyne always needs a few games to get back to his best level. As he said himself, "give me 2-3 weeks and I'll be back at my normal level". He'll come good.

According to Belgian press, Chelsea have set a price tag of 30 million for De Bruyne.

He played CM at Werder Bremen too. Bundesliga, not exactly a walk in the park defensively. You're using his passing percentage as a winger or AM to rate his qualities as a CM. That's not fair, because you're ignoring the fact that different things are expected from both positions and that players can adapt their playing-style playing in different roles. KDB has played as CM for Genk, Werder and the National team. When playing as CM he puts less risk in his passing. He still tries to pass forward as much as possible, but he's playing more safe when palying as CM. But his career at Chelsea surely is over. It's a shame you guys never got to see the real KDB play, with confidence and less pressure to prove himself in one game. I said it before, after Willian was bought, his Chelsea-career was over. You can't expect a young player to surpass Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Willian and Schurrle when he only gets one game at a time to prove himself. When you want players like KDB to get to his best level, you need to give them 20-30 minutes in some matches and give them a start at lesser important matches. It's the lack of 20-30 minutes substitutions that prevent him from getting to his best level. To only let him start once every 1-2 months and the odd 5 minutes at the games final minutes, he never would have succeeded.

Ridiculous. KDB was praised for his workrate in Germany, both defensively en offensively. With the NT he's the first player to press on the opponents half, even if he has to do it on his own. You can argue that his tackling isn't the best, but you wouldn't doubt his defensive workrate and pressing if you have seen him play a bit more then a couple of games at Chelsea. BVB's style of play would suit him perfectly, but I wouldn't recommend a move to Dortmund at the moment. With Reus, Mkhitaryan and Blaszczykowski their AM's have been pretty much set. With the WC in June he has to play to get to his best level. If he chooses a 6-month-loan in january, BVB would be an ideal option in the summer, if Klopp stays ofcourse.

Oh come on. KDB isn't some 18-year-old without experience. If you don't want to play him until Chelsea are up 3-0, then just admit that you don't believe in him. On the other hand, I don't think it really matters that much anymore. In january KDB will play his football elsewhere.

How did he play?

Which one?

It was his agent. In dutch "agent" is translated as "manager".

And then what? Things won't be that different next year.

It's all well and good he's praising him, I would like praise myself as well. But the timing is kind of well... suspicious, right? He's not even on the bench in most matches, and suddenly this? If i was him, I'd try to get out of there as soon as possible, at least for the coming 6 months. He's gonna miss a starting spot in Brazil if he continues like this... He can always try again next year. It's not that they're missing him right now. 2 Mourinho obviously wants to keep his team as strong as possible. Who wouldn't want KDB as an extra option in the stands, to use him when others are injured. So Mourinho wants KDB to stay at Chelsea and he's hoping that praising him and giving him some playing-time will change KDBs mind of leaving. But, after January, nothing will have changed for KDB if Mata doesn't leave. Only if he performs out of this world, he'll get ahead of one of the AM's or Lampard after January. You can't expect those kind of performances after not playing for so long. KDB needs more then one game to get at his best level. Just playing decent or good won't be enough to really change his situation. He has to leave, on loan or on transfer. He can't risk sitting in the stands for another 6 months.

Not really. In the youth teams De Bruyne wasn't the easiest kid to work with. He never was a bad kid, but he's someones that hates losing, even the smallest games in training. When things didn't go right, he became a bit grumpy. As a professional player at Genk, I never really noticed anything of a bad attitude. All of his coaches confirm though that he's a very demanding person, of his teammates, but even more from himself. He's mad when the team's losing or when he's not playing at his normal level. The reports you are referring to, will probably be about a half-time interview in one of De Bruyne's games at Genk. The season Genk played Chelsea in the CL, Genk was going through a rough period with lots of bad games. Lots of players wanted to leave Genk because they saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after playing CL and champions in Genk. When Genk were losing again and De Bruyne was interviewed at half-time, he said something like : "every Genk-player has to take a look at themself and ask themself if they still want to play for Genk. Maybe it's better to use only those players that are still motivated for this club". Besides that interview, there never were any problems regarding his attitude towards his teammates. There was some criticism after that interview, partly because he said those things after agreeing his transfer to Chelsea himself, but I didn't agree. He was right to try to shake things up and as one of the youngest players of the team, he took the responsibility older players weren't taking. So yes, I can imagine De Bruyne being a bit grumpy at the start of this season when things weren't going his way. I'm not sure if that's a real attitude-problem. It's also a sign of how demanding he is of himself and how motivated he is to play at his best level.

Interesting interviews in Belgian press today. Audio interview with Thibaut himself. He says they will talk to Chelsea in the coming months to decide about his future. He stated very clearly that he wants his future to be decided prior to the World Cup in June. He doesn't want to be playing for a transfer during the World Cup. Another interview with Guy Martens, thé reference in Belgian Goalkeeper-coaches and Thibauts coach for quite a few years. He states that Thibaut his strengths are his very good reflexes for a keeper of his height, very good 1 vs 1, but above all his mental abilities. No matter what happens, he will always immediately focus on the task ahead or his next save to make. When he was 14, he was behind Koen Casteels (Hoffenheim) in the pecking order, but while Casteels kept evolving at a normal pace, Thibaut's evolution was more like a revolution when he became 16. He became very good very quickly. He also said that Thibaut became a better goalkeeper in Spain because of the higher level of competition. The last question he answered was how good Courtois really is at the moment? He answered this in a very serious way, stating that he thinks Courtois is, without a doubt, the best goalkeeper in Europe at the moment. Of course you can debate about such statements, but it means something when a professional coach, who knows Courtois like anybody else, is that positive about him. You can rest assure that he's playing a big part in Atletico's defensive stability.

He brought on £90 million worth of talent, including De Bruyne who everyone has wanted to play since day fucking dot. He dropped Cole, played Azpi and even brought in Mikel yet people are still not happy. Some people on here are a fucking joke and the reason they don't get told more is because the decent posters who get frustrated would be the ones who get punished. So we basically have matchday threads dominated by people trolling about the SAME FUCKING THINGS over and over again. It's fucking laughable. De Bruyne played for 5 minutes, so I'm not getting what you're trying to prove. It's not like he played today.

In Belgian press today : Atletico Madrid very interested in De Bruyne. According to the article, there has been contact with Enrique Cerezo and José Caminero with both Chelsea and De Bruyne/Bruyne's manager.

Came into the squad after 65 minutes. Played as an AM with lots of freedom, from the right wing but drifting to the center most of the time. Had a much better performance then his Colombia-game. Actually changed the game, before he came in Belgium were losing possession all the time, were lacking skill, passing and movement in central midfield. De Bruyne was asking for the ball all the time, kept possession and played the ball forward well. Had a nice, but difficult, chance in the last minutes, but his volley was too central in goal. He finally looked a bit like the De Bruyne we know, appeared to have much more confidence. Maybe Mourinho's attendance at the Colombia-game made him feel too much like he had to prove something, I don't know.

He's played as a central midfielder before.

Agreed that people are giving up too soon on him. He absolutely has the required talent to succeed at the top teams in Europe. He's a different player then Mata or Oscar, but in form he'll always create chances for his team. However, De Bruyne has always been a player who needs games to be at his top level. Even at Genk in his early career, after being injured he needed a few games to get back to his best level. His first games after an injury have always been bad. He's lacking in experience and is playing unnatural this season because he's trying to prove himself. At Chelsea, he won't get the run of games he needs to be at his best. And frankly, if he plays like yesterday with the national team, he won't get in the team at Chelsea. The difference with the De Bruyne of last year or Chelseas preseason is enormous. There's only one solution for De Bruyne : he needs to start playing games. It's up to Chelsea if they loan him or sell him in january, but it's obvious something will happen, becaus I can't imagine Mourinho was impressed after seeing him play yesterday.

KDB slowing down the game? His best asset in that position is his passing range. He won't slow up the game playing as a CM. I don't think he's strong enough yet to play in that position in the big games. But in home games against inferior opposition, it's well worth the try. He played his best games in the CM-position and he'll be involved much more in the game in that position, which makes it easier to gain confidence.

Probably. You could see he isn't playing his natural game, he's playing like a player that has to prove things in one game. He needs games and confidence, but he probably won't get them with average performances. In Belgian media today there was a report about Chelsea possibly using KDB in a move for Koke (Atletico).

It wasn't in any way meant to be negative for Mourinho. At the moment there are 5 AM's ahead of him. Most of them are playing well, are established players in international football and cost Chelsea a lot of money. To get in the team, he would have to surpass three of those players, which means three of those players would either be on the bench or in the stands. I just don't believe that will happen often this season, except for games like this evening.