Kevin De Bruyne: Compilation of all the assists he's been robbed of by Jesus and Sterling | OneFootball

Kevin De Bruyne is unquestionably the best midfielder in the world today and has been for much of the time since Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City in 2016.

His expert vision and passing, coupled with his goalscoring exploits, have been paramount to City’s success in recent years, and have made every player he has played with better for it.

The latest case of this of course is Erling Haaland, whose outrageous start to English football has been aided by the assist machine that is KDB – goals against Aston Villa and Manchester United spring to mind, where the combination of the Belgian’s passing and the Norwegian’s movement, positioning and finishing led to stunning execution.

Prior to Haaland, De Bruyne had a similarly brilliant symbiotic relationship with another lethal marksman in the form of Sergio Aguero. A player, like Haaland, that would score goals for any side, but who no doubt had his numbers bolstered by playing in front of the midfield maestro.

Away from these two, think of Pep’s first two Premier League titles with City in 2017-18 and 2018-19, where Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling saw their goalscoring stats improve exponentially because of De Bruyne, as well as Guardiola’s coaching of course.

Sterling in particular enjoyed a career run around this time, with 48 goals across those two seasons and the Football Writer’s Player of the Year in 2018-19. For a player never renowned for his brilliant finishing ability, it was quite the upturn in goalscoring fortunes.

Gabriel Jesus, who joined City in January 2018 as a “replacement” for Aguero but who very much became a complementary piece, was just behind Sterling on 44 goals, again a benefactor of the laser-like passing of KDB.

A clip shared on Twitter by @ewan10i shows that it could have been so much more for the pair if they were more Haaland and Aguero-like – granted that is extremely difficult.

While so many goals came from De Bruyne assists, it’s staggering to see the number of guilt-edged chances spurned after KDB had put the ball onto their foot and often in the box. Have a look for yourself.

The Twitter user claims that De Bruyne could and should have overtaken Ryan Giggs’ Premier League record of 162 assists by now. A fanciful and probably tongue-in-cheek claim, but he would certainly be a lot closer.

The Belgian currently sits in fifth place all-time with 94 assists behind Giggs who has a substantial lead over Cesc Fabregas (111), Wayne Rooney (103) Frank Lampard (102). It feels unlikely that he will be able to catch Giggs given the gap and the difference in games played but second is within reach.

And soon. De Bruyne has already recorded nine assists in 12 league games this season and is on course to smash his and Thierry Henry’s joint-record of 20 in one season. With Haaland around, it seems a near-guarantee.

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As for Jesus and Sterling, both departed City this summer for Arsenal and Chelsea respectively where their sometimes-wayward finishing has continued. Jesus has without doubt been a major reason for the Gunners’ table-topping form but he’s currently in a bit of a goal drought, while Sterling has regressed back down to the mean without De Bruyne teeing him up on the weekly.

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