Kevin de Bruyne

[DYC. 7,542]

Even if coaching could make him into a defensive midfielder which is extremely doubtful (the fact that you can name the players who made the move shows you how few actually do), it would take some time. He's not almost ready to be moved there, he needs a lot of work to work on his game meaning he'd need to be loaned out to a team willing to play him in central midfield.

I'd prefer the term centre midfielder, i hear/read defensive midfielder and I think of guys like Mikel and Sven Bender etc. Anyway there are more examples btw, think of Verratti of PSG. Arteta was an attacking midfielder at Everton before Wenger moved him to a role in front of defense. Dembele was a striker (I always smile when thinking about it, he's a awful finisher), then moved to the wings and now he's a centre mid. Gerrard's best years were as an offensive player and we know where plays now, a role he fills in quite well I have to say. Pirlo's another example but you'd have to waaaay back.

There's just something about KDB's game that makes me think of Schweini. It would take time yes though I think it's mostly a case of commitment from him and willingness to take a chance or to even see it at all (Schweinsteiger was 25 I think when Van Gaal played him there).

[wilander 35]

De Bruyne should leave, we have excessive attacking midfielders.

We need a strong defensive midfielder.

[Hamilton 2,118]

So now media are saying we want to include a buy-back option..

[bushman 2,043]

Chelsea inform KDB he can leave.

There should be no shortage of clubs in Germany interested.

Most likely, sold for approx. 10m, I feel.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

No one is saying they want to make him a defensive midfielder because that would be ridiculous, but turning KdB into a sort of deep lying playmaker everyone is crying out for wouldn't be that far fetched. For what it's worth, in my opinion De Bruyne has all the tools required to become an excellent player in that role but it's clearly not gonna happen so no point discussing it further.

I think it is far-fetched or rather a case of wish fulfillment. De Bruyne's game is pretty much the opposite of what you'd want from a deep-lying midfielder and his skills are tailor-made for an attacking position. I don't think people appreciate how bad De Bruyne is defensively right now and how much that matters. De Bruyne has started 5 games with Chelsea and has 1 tackle, 7 fouls and 0 interceptions in those games. That's beyond atrocious. Juan Mata is a poor defensive player and has 11 tackles and 6 fouls. Schurrle has 2 more fouls than De Bruyne in the league but has 14 more tackles and 7 more interceptions. Statistics don't tell the whole story though (even though when they are that damning, they are impossible to ignore) and when you watch Chelsea, you can see how easily teams bypass De Bruyne either by doing a quick give and go around him or by running right by him. His pressing is poor, his tackling is poor, his positioning is poor, the lanes he chooses to defend are poor, his defensive instincts are poor, etc...Some teams can choose to ignore than. Mata hasn't had to play much defense in the last 2 seasons for example, but there's a cost to the team as well and in central midfield is utterly impossible to have a player like that.

@DYC. Yes, maybe it's theoretically possible but I don't see why we would. He doesn't really remind me of Schweinsteiger in the least because when I think of him, you think work-ethic, determination, etc...Schweinsteiger's first appearance was as a LB. He was always a versatile player capable of playing multiple positions and they just had to find the right position for him. De Bruyne is a finesse player who is hard to envision as anything other than an attacking player. I also don't see why so many people want to force him into our lineup where he doesn't belong. (BTW, Arteta was originally a deep-lying midfielder who Everton moved forward. Wenger just moved him back to his original position)

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

I would only sell the boy if we had a buy-back clause of 15 million so we could bring him back in two years. He'll be a player at 24.

[bushman 2,043]

I would only sell the boy if we had a buy-back clause of 15 million so we could bring him back in two years. He'll be a player at 24.

Chelsea should sell him outright. He will never get a chance to play for Chelsea, anyway.

[SykikJV 146]

De Bruyne was never going to play in central midfield and I don't know why people go on about this. His skill set just doesn't work at all there. (And yes, I know he played some there with Genk, but that's a different world entirely) De Bruyne is terrible defensively and is a low percentage passer and his main skills are crossing and key passes which means that he should be playing up the pitch. He's a #10 or maybe the attacking midfield of a 4-3-3. He could play winger in the right system even. I can see Oscar being moved to the pivot as he has the right skills to make it work but De Bruyne never made any sense there anymore than putting Mata in the pivot makes sense.

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.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

I would only sell the boy if we had a buy-back clause of 15 million so we could bring him back in two years. He'll be a player at 24.

Seriously, which club would sign that deal? 'Here, take our sucky player we don't want! But hey, because there's always a slim chance he'll stop sucking after you work with him extensively for years, we'd like to buy him back for approximately the same fee. Thanks for the effort, assholes!'

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

And basically: he's clearly unhappy at Chelsea by now, which affects his confidence and game. There's really no point in keeping him, There's excellent competition for his spot and he'll likely never be able to replace them... Sell him now before he loses his value.

[mediator 2,026]

Seriously, which club would sign that deal? 'Here, take our sucky player we don't want! But hey, because there's always a slim chance he'll stop sucking after you work with him extensively for years, we'd like to buy him back for approximately the same fee. Thanks for the effort, assholes!'

We did it with Romeu...

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Nah, I'll stick with 15-20m euros. If no team is willing to meet the asking price now, it's better to just send the kid on loan to one of the interested teams and sell him once he has consistently shown signs of top form and proven to everyone he's well worth the hefty fee. If he also has a good World Cup his value might actually be even higher than that come next summer but selling him now for a modest price of around 10m will once again make the club look like complete mugs as soon as he starts performing at his own level again, which really should only be a matter of time once he gets back to playing regular first team football.

Anyway, I don't even think that an asking price of around €15-20m will cause any problems if the plan really is to let him go on a permanent transfer. I honestly believe we will have the top Bundesliga teams with the exception of Bayern Munich lining up to sign him and Chelsea as the owner of De Bruyne can name the price and it's up to them to meet it.

I'm still hoping everything would work out for Kevin at Chelsea but at the moment it's not looking very promising for him. If Jose really rates De Bruyne but isn't playing him just because there's too many players at the moment, he should be sent on an 18 month long term loan to a team like Bayer Leverkusen and examine his situation after that. That is of course assuming De Bruyne is handling this in a professional way and not burning any bridges to the people at the club because of the way he's been treated this season.

No offense but you're a fucking idiot. De Bruyne hasn't played much at Chelsea, which is understandable given the level of the competition for places in the team for a player of his position, but he has played plenty for other teams and proven to be a much better player than that kid from Genk who wasn't even a regular call-up for the national team but is now one of their most important players. If his level has gone up a few notches, why shouldn't the price have gone up too? Going by your logic, I suppose the value of Thibaut Courtois hasn't risen much either because he hasn't proven himself at Chelsea.

LOL, "no offense but you're a fucking idiot", that's like saying "no offence but your mother's face looks like a sack of chisels". Very rude! Play nicely please, children.

[bushman 2,043]

LOL, "no offense but you're a fucking idiot", that's like saying "no offence but your mother's face looks like a sack of chisels". Very rude! Play nicely please, children.

Any reprimand for it or should I call him the same ? What are the rules on it ?

[Jype 6,398]

LOL, "no offense but you're a fucking idiot", that's like saying "no offence but your mother's face looks like a sack of chisels". Very rude! Play nicely please, children.

Okay, maybe that was out of line. I'll accept a warning if you think that's necessary.

or should I call him the same?

You go right ahead, I won't mind.

[bushman 2,043]

Okay, maybe that was out of line. I'll accept a warning if you think that's necessary.

You go right ahead, I won't mind.

Since I do not believe to insult folks here, I won´t stoop that low.

Whatever, you Alex decide, it´s up to you. Just keep in mind, rules were made here, if you do not apply them, folks in here are gonna insult each other, knowing nothing happens. I am not used to being insulted by someone like him.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

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.

He never played as a real CM at Bremen. He played central midfielder in a 4-3-3 where he was the most forward player on the pitch. if you look at his average position, he actually played more of a second striker. He played way up field every game often past the striker himself. True, you can't take statistics and apply them to different positions, but those statistics do go with his skills. De Bruyne is a very good crosser, he is very good at setting up scoring chances. He tries a lot of difficult passes though which is why he has a low percentage and he is poor defensively even for an attacking midfielder.

I agree with you that he was never given a chance at Chelsea and I was against the Willian signing partly for this reason but it is what it is and Willian is a better fit than De Bruyne for this side. De Bruyne's chances have been limited but, De Bruyne should have done better with his limited chances. He looks like a fish out of water. Anyway, there really is no room for any attacking midfielder on our team until one or two players get sold. You need 4 regular attacking midfielders and 1 other player who gets rotated in. We have 6 players who should be playing regularly somewhere.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Okay, maybe that was out of line. I'll accept a warning if you think that's necessary.

You go right ahead, I won't mind.

As you've never had any past, a simple apology will do, Jype. You're a good member and I don't recall you ever insulting anyone before! But I have to say this is an informal warning nonetheless, please be a little nicer! I've said it for many years - attack the reasoning in someone's argument, but never the person themselves!

[laeth 527]

There are too many players ahead of him in the wing / number 10 position for him to ever get a real chance here. He's not impressed whenever he has been on the pitch and as has been mentioned; he is defensively too weak / poor to play in a Mourinho team. If Mata -- Chelsea's best player for the last two seasons and one of the best number 10's in the world -- was getting dropped consistently for being poor defensively and not having a high enough work rate, there is no chance KDB will ever get to play a run of games.

We should sell him to a team that frees their number 10 of defensive duties. Ironically, last year he would of been an ideal Mata backup in the number 10 spot.

Ah well..