Journalist Rob Dawson has suggested that Kevin De Bruyne could see his levels drop following his shaky period last season for Manchester City.
Back in March, after finding himself being in and out of the team, Pep Guardiola spoke about the midfielder’s dip in form being the main reason why he was on the bench for certain games.
Recently, the 32-year-old has found himself being named as ESPN’s best attacking-midfielder in the world following City’s treble-winning season.
Dawson hints at De Bruyne levels being ‘on the slide’
Speaking in a recent video on the ESPN FC YouTube channel, Dawson said this about De Bruyne and his efforts for City last season.
He said: “Having watched him week in week out for City last season he was absolutely fantastic, City were the best team in Europe.
“There is an argument that maybe his level is on the slide a little bit, there were points last season where Pep Guardiola wasn’t particularly happy with him, but I think that just shows the overall level of the player that even in a season where there were slight criticisms of his output, he was still far an away the best attacking player in Europe.”
Looking back at the period in the middle of the season where the Belgian found himself not being a regular starter, he was an unused substitute for City’s 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur in January and didn’t start the away fixture against the north London side just a couple of weeks later.
After this point, the midfielder went on to play a big part in City’s successes by scoring three goals and providing five assists across the four Premier League games he played in April, as well as assisting both goals in the 2-1 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup final and delivering two assists in the 4-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg.
Having also ended the league campaign with more assists (16) and a higher overall performance rating (7.58/10) from WhoScored, than any other player in the division, this further highlights how impressive De Bruyne was.
Taking into account what Dawson said, if De Bruyne’s levels do start to slip moving forward, he’ll still be above most players in England in terms of churing out top performances and delivering goal contributions.
