Pass master De Bruyne is on the top of his game
IF THE vote for player of the season was held tomorrow, Kevin de Bruyne would probably win it. If not, he would be challenged by three or four of his Manchester City team-mates. They have just about the best player in every position at the moment.
Even the keeper Ederson Moraes is in terrific form. His shotstopping has been excellent but I don’t think I have seen anything like the distances he can make with his kicking.
De Bruyne is slightly ahead of David Silva, who has also been producing phenomenal levels of performance over the last month. Then you have Raheem Sterling closely behind.
Last week, Jamie Redknapp hailed de Bruyne as the best passer the Premier League has ever seen. It is hard to disagree.
It is the range of passing, the angles and things he sees. He is a risk taker. Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Steven Gerrard were always prepared to look beyond the safe option and gamble on the ball they played.
De Bruyne seems to have the ability to look at a situation just once, for a second, and know exactly what he wants to do with the ball.
It is like he has a photograph of the scene and can put the ball precisely where he wants in the picture.
As Ireland discovered last summer, Belgium are a superb team with brilliant individuals as England may discover in Russia. If they can stop Kevin de Bruyne, they can stop Belgium.