City’s nominal 4-3-3 sees De Bruyne line up on the right-hand side of the midfield
three, but with Fernandinho sitting, full-backs pushing
high, and a mesmeric, shifting front alignment, Pep Guardiola’s City more closely resemble
a fluid 2-3-2-3 with more than a hint of Marcelo Bielsa.
Both the two central midfielders are expected to cover lots of ground and to get into
positions that are wide as well as in the middle of the park.
De Bruyne can often be found drifted into the wide channel to take a pass
from his right full-back, Kyle Walker , who then
receives the ball back and charges forwards, or takes a return on the overlap.
This allows the full-backs to play in the inverted style that
Guardiola feels gives more dynamism and a numerical supremacy in the centre of the park,
but it only works because De Bruyne’s drifting towards the full-back creates the
space to push into.
It’s also worth observing that when the full-backs push high, especially if Walker
does, then De Bruyne will sit back further, effectively
covering the central space with Fernandinho and
the other full-back.
This allows City to create the two blocks of five effect, with five players,
the remaining full-back, centre-backs, and two midfielders forming a defensive unit,
and five players pushing ahead of or in line with the
ball.
If City break quickly, as they can do from defence with the pace of their front players
and the distribution of Ederson and John Stones in
particularly, then they aim to get five players forwards.
De Bruyne is equally comfortable joining this attacking rush or sitting; while his
running style might seem languid he is a deceptively physical player.
In these breaks, however, De Bruyne will often check his forward movement to provide the
breaking players a more central passing option – with his vision and range of passing,
De Bruyne is the ideal person to then quarter-back
the rapid attacking options ahead of him.
If City attack in a more measured way, De Bruyne tends to be slightly deeper than David
Silva too.
Silva is more naturally adept at interchanging and bursting onto return passes, while De
Bruyne has increasingly become the controlling influence from slightly deeper, but with the
mobility to get forwards as required.
Of course, in the 2016/17 season De Bruyne created the second most chances in the Premier
League, behind Christian Eriksen.
Of the top five teams for chances created, City were third
and De Bruyne’s 21.2% of City’s total chances was only just behind Eriksen’s 22.1%
for proportion of chances created by one player
for those top five sides.
This season, De Bruyne and David Silva have created the most chances in the league so
far of any players, but it’s interesting to note
that over half of De Bruyne’s chances have come
from set piece situations.
League leading Silva has six assists, to De Bruyne’s three, again indicating that the
Belgian is increasingly the orchestrator from a slightly
deeper role, rather than towards the tip of the
spear, which is where he was last season, where he recorded 18 assists, more than any
Premier League player.
There’s nothing to say that De Bruyne won’t get near that number again this season.
What’s most interesting is that as far as Pep is
concerned, De Bruyne is now a more complete midfielder, responsible for defensive, transitional,
and attacking phases.
His dead ball delivery is hugely important, as is ability
to pick passes from deeper or release the quicker
attacking players ahead of him with short passes.
Indeed, his season-by-season output for Manchester City in the last three Premier
League terms has changed little except for total
passes per 90, which has gone up significantly and his goal scoring, which has diminished.
This shows an all-rounder rather than an out-and-out creator, someone who has adapted
their game to become arguably Manchester City’s most important player without losing
their creative ability.
There’s a strong case that this season, Kevin De Bruyne isn’t just City’s key
player, he’s the best midfielder in the Premier League.