Many Citizens complained of withdrawal symptoms for KDB goals last season.

Some argue that the free 8 tactical innovation designed to accommodate he and David Silva allowed others to flourish at the expense of Kev’s goals.

KDB notched 16 goals in his debut season but only notched 7 in the last campaign. In his new role he sat deeper and linked the defence to the attack and it was not only the wonder strikes that were reduced as a consequence.

We were also seeing fewer of those wonderful pirouettes in centre-mid followed by lung-busting surges into the opponent’s penalty box that were so much a hallmark of the previous year.

However his tally of assists  shot up from 9 to 22 in all competitions so that his teammates further forward got all the glory.

He was top of the charts for this in the Premier League and was at it again against Southampton with 2 more for Sane and Aguero.

Guardiola addressed the issue recently:

“You cannot do that if you are not a good guy, you cannot do that if you are not humble, if you are not shy, if you think just of yourself and not your team. I have spoken with him many times about his favourite position but he says ‘It doesn’t matter, I want to play, I adapt’.

He plays a lot of minutes – in the last games he was a little bit down but that is because he has a lot of minutes in his legs. He’s an important player for us because in the last metres he is a guy who creates more. We have hit the post 18 times this season, eight times with Kevin De Bruyne, we are in that position where we are little unlucky with that. But he gives us a lot and is a fantastic player.”

Does it bother our Kev? Let’s let the man speak for himself:

“…I have a different role now, playing deeper than last year so I know people are comparing stats and goals but I think I’m doing a better job than I did last year.”

Verdict From The Blue:

As he gets more and used to the demands of his new role, KDB will eventually add the goals. I believe this is part of a Pep project to make a more complete player.

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