Robbie Savage has given an insight into whether he thinks Paul Scholes was the better midfielder or Kevin De Bruyne.
The pundit felt the Englishman was the perfect type of player to compare De Bruyne to on the Football Digest show.
Recently, Gary Lineker claimed that the 32-year-old was certainly a more versatile player than Paul Scholes.
Robbie Savage says Paul Scholes was better than Kevin De Bruyne
Often, the pair are compared due to having run the show for Manchester’s cross-town clubs for years on end.
Even though many would argue that David Silva was a much similar type of player to the United legend than the Belgian international.
But even so, Robbie Savage believes Paul Scholes has the edge over Manchester City talisman Kevin De Bruyne.
“Well, I’ll be biased because I played against [Paul] Scholesy, Patrick Vieira, so many good players in the generation I played against, Frank Lampard”, he said on the Football Digest podcast.
“It’s got to be, in terms of the type of player, Scholesy and Kevin De Bruyne. You know, people saying about David Beckham, different players although Kevin De Bruyne’s ball on the right-hand side when he whips it in behind defences, David Beckham could do that also.”
Robbie Savage believes how highly legendary midfielders rated Paul Scholes is one reason why he does so as well over Kevin De Bruyne.
“I think if you look at Scholesy or Kevin De Bruyne as some type of players, when you’ve got [Andres] Iniesta or [Zinedine] Zidane talking about Scholesy the way they did, I’d have to just edge it for Scholesy. And then there’s a big debate, different generations.”
Robbie Savage also believes Paul Scholes dominated the Premier League in a superior era to that of when Kevin De Bruyne has been playing in England.
“I personally and this is another debate, people say the Premier League is harder now. Is it? Can somebody tell me why it is? People say because people are stronger, fitter now, the amount of games.”
“If you run 14k at a high intensity, so you do 14k in a game and the high intensity runs at 70, 80 sprints and your speed’s the same, how is it harder now? You look at the teams when I played. I think from first to bottom, the standard was better and listen, you’ve covered football for ages, all three of you [Darren Lewis, John Cross and Andy Dunn] and you’ll have an opinion on that”, he said.
“But if you look at the teams when I played in the Premier League at the bottom, Sheffield Wednesday’s quality, look at Aston Villa, they’re doing great now, look at Bradford, the teams! You look at Liverpool’s team when I played, you look at [Steven] Gerrard, [Xabi] Alonso, you look at Manchester United’s midfield, [Ryan] Giggs, Scholes, [Roy] Keane, Beckham.”
“Look at Arsenal’s, Crossy [John Cross], [Marc] Overmars, [Emmanuel] Petit, [Patrick] Vieira and on the right, [Robert] Pires. Look at Chelsea! Look at Chelsea’s midfield. [Claude] Makelele, Lampard, [Arjen] Robben, Joe Cole, [Didier] Drogba up top. So, it’s a great debate. I’m probably boring you now rather than boring myself but I would say Scholesy.”
When quizzed about picking either Paul Scholes or Kevin De Bruyne at the peaks of their careers, Robbie Savage replied, “[Paul] Scholes. You three disagree, I can tell!”
“No, no [I won’t change my mind about Paul Scholes being better than Kevin De Bruyne]! Are you, Darren [Lewis]?”
“So can Scholesy [play every type of pass like Kevin De Bruyne]!”
“What do you mean you [Darren Lewis] don’t know? Scholesy could!”
Kevin De Bruyne is streets ahead of the Manchester United legend
In our view, Robbie Savage is erring by likening Kevin De Bruyne to Paul Scholes, considering they are both different types of midfielders.
De Bruyne is much more of a traditional number ten, while Scholes was an out-and-out central midfielder.
However, there are plenty of attributes that give the Manchester City midfielder the edge over the retired maestro.
For starters, while both of them are renowned for their enviable range of passing, De Bruyne is a much superior chance creator than Scholes ever was. The former can dictate games like the latter while also being adept at breaking down low blocks due to his elite final ball.
In addition, Kevin De Bruyne is a much better carrier of the ball than Paul Scholes was as well, who was much more static in his style.
Off the ball, while Scholes was known not to have an engine, the same cannot be said for the Sky Blues midfielder, who remains a brilliant presser and duel-winner in the middle of the park at 32 years of age.
Unlike Kevin De Bruyne, the 49-year-old was simply never the leading light at Manchester United.
The pair have shared the pitch with several legendary players but De Bruyne has, more often than not managed to stand out amongst the very best.
The same cannot be said for Scholes for a majority of his time at Old Trafford.
All in all, in our view, Kevin De Bruyne is streets ahead of Paul Scholes as a midfielder.
