CITY SPECIAL KDB is player of the year – by a distance
KEVIN de Bruyne has covered enough distance in the Premier League this season to have run from Manchester to London.
And if there was any doubt that the City star should sweep the board in the individual honours this season, that statistic should dismiss it.
De Bruyne is odds-on favourite with the bookies to be voted Player of the Year by his fellow pros, mainly due to the supreme quality he has shown.
The Belgian has become the main man at City, a scorer and maker of important goals, an exquisite passer and crosser and – as Cardiff discovered on Sunday – an innovative thinker.
There are other players who are close to De Bruyne in terms of the influence they have on their teams, and the impact they have had on the league, and that is reflected in the betting, with Liverpool’s Mo Salah second favourite, followed by Spurs striker Harry Kane, City colleague David Silva and Chelsea ace Eden Hazard.
You could make an argument that in terms of quality, that quartet are close to, or even equal to, the brilliance of De Bruyne. But when you hold their work-rates up against that of the Belgian, they simply do not match him.
And when you consider that De Bruyne has also played more games than any of the others, and applies the same work ethic against Bristol City as he does against Barcelona, and it becomes clear he is close to being the complete footballer.
De Bruyne has run 179 miles (288 kms) in the course of the league campaign.
And that sets him apart from the other strong contenders, with Salah racking up 144 miles, Harry Kane 150 miles, David Silva 139 miles and Eden Hazard 114 miles.
Obviously, running hard is not the sole criteria – if it was, Burnley midfielder Jack Cork would be THE man, with a phenomenal distance of 198 miles.
But when you add in the fact that De Bruyne has also played with world-class quality, scoring six league goals and making ten assists, it sets him apart.
Only nine players have covered more ground in the Premier League this season – and almost all of them are midfield workhorses like Cork, Nemanja Matic, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Aaron Mooy.
The exception is Spurs star Christian Eriksen, who has run four kilometres more than De Bruyne, but has played five games less in all competitions. Most statisticians look at how many kilometres per game players have covered, and in that respect Bournemouth’s Dan Gosling is top of the chart, with 13.19 kms per game, some distance ahead of De Bruyne, who averages 11.66 kms per game. That fails to take into account the fact that Gosling has played 10 less league games, does not have midweek European games, AND has played in less domestic cup games. De Bruyne has already hinted that he is feeling the effects of his intense schedule and heavy work rate, saying that he is not at 100 per cent. And Pep Guardiola has not been able to rotate his star performer as he would have liked, due to David Silva’s personal troubles. But De Bruyne wants to play in every game, and he has already driven City into a strong position in four competitions.