Kevin De Bruyne is still considered the Premier League’s midfield king, but the player is finding a worthy opponent. It’s Martin Odegaard.
De Bruyne goes down, Odegaard goes up
Kevin De Bruyne is the best creative midfielder in the Premier League in the last 10 years. Since joining Man City, the Belgian player has always played the role of conductor. Whether the talented and ‘thinking’ strategist Pep Guardiola invents any sophisticated tactical system, De Bruyne is still the soul. Nearly 100 assists in the Premier League in just eight seasons with The Citizens and a total of 200 assists during his club career are truly remarkable numbers.
This season is no exception. He still deceived his opponents with his trademark crescent-shaped cross. De Bruyne’s figures are even more impressive because on Man City’s attack, there is an assassin Erling Haaland who scores goals like a lemon. If De Bruyne finds pleasure from the passes for teammates to score, Haaland is like a “addict” to score goals, only finding the ecstasy peak through the times when he hits the opponent’s net. Indeed, a pair was born.
But, in the season that seems to be the most comprehensive in terms of people in theory, Man City is in a position to chase instead of sitting at the top of the Premier League table like in previous seasons. Leading on the rankings is Arsenal, not the Etihad Stadium team. Under the guidance of coach Mikel Arteta, a disciple of Pep Guardiola himself as an assistant at Man City before, the London Gunners transformed with a scientific, sophisticated and progressive play inspired by Guardiola’s ideas. In it, Martin Odegaard emerged as the soul of the team.
Moreover, despite the assurance of ‘numbers’, observers have glimpsed the decline of De Bruyne, who is about to turn 32 and has just experienced the humiliation of defeat at the World Cup 2022. After the world football championship in Qatar, in the last 14 rounds in the Premier League, the Belgian midfielder has only 1 goal and 3 assists. Before that, the first 15 rounds of the season, De Bruyne scored 3 goals and made 10 assists. In the match against Newcastle, the Belgian midfielder disappointed when he passed wrongly, dealt with many mistakes and was substituted in the 65th minute. The substitute for De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva only took 2 minutes to score the winning goal 2- 0. To the match against Crystal Palace, De Bruyne only came on from the bench in the last 11 minutes of the game.
Despite shining again in the match against Leipzig, with a goal that fixed the score… 7-0 in the 90th minute, however, the aforementioned events expressed concern for untouchable players such as De Bruyne. ‘Of course, people have a different standard for me. They expect me to score and assist in every game. I think I’m still playing well. Maybe there were a little less assists but I don’t think I created fewer chances. Maybe not the best I’ve ever been, but it’s fine. I know the statistics. I am the one who creates the most chances and has the most assists in the league. I did it consistently during my eight years in England and 15 years of my professional career. I feel fine,’ the Belgian midfielder countered.
Meanwhile, Odegaard continues to flourish at Arsenal. The Norwegian midfielder’s performance in the 3-0 win over Fulham prompted expert Jamie Redknapp to exclaim: ‘Right now, Odegaard is the number one midfielder in the Premier League. Often people evaluate De Bruyne as the number one midfielder in the world, not only in the Premier League but in the whole world. Currently, this judgment is not very true, because he is no longer playing as much as he would like. Odegaard possesses the quality that all great players possess: When the ball is on it, time seems to stand still. He has unparalleled composure.
He has scored four or five goals like the one against Fulham, with his left foot. He’s the captain, he’s the leader. He is leading the team. When he doesn’t have the ball, he puts pressure on the opponent and chases the ball’.
Statistics show that Redknapp’s judgment is completely valid: Odegaard has faced 510 rounds of pressure from opposing players when he has the ball, compared to De Bruyne’s only 336, proving his ability to hold the ball is extremely outstanding. the color of the Norwegian midfielder. Of course, Man City’s conductor is a midfielder who finds space to escape pressure and create a breakthrough for the ball, but Odegaard clearly excels completely in tight spaces and calm, as said, unmatched.
Compare De Bruyne vs Odegaard
In terms of numbers, De Bruyne and Odegaard both have 16 Premier League goals and assists, more than any other midfielder. The difference is, De Bruyne assists twice as much as Odegaard and Odegaard scores twice as much as De Bruyne.
If we look at goals and expected assists, a metric that reflects the quality of chances created, De Bruyne once again excels in Expected Assists (xA). Meanwhile, Odegaard leads the list for Expected Goals (XG) for midfielders.
In an interview on Super Sunday, former striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink made the point: ‘Odegaard is a different type of midfielder than De Bruyne. He always has a solution. When placed in a tight space, he finds the most reasonable solution and is very calm. He doesn’t have as many assists as De Bruyne because he’s not that kind of midfielder. He exhibits other qualities, subtlety and efficiency. Watching Odegaard play is a joy’.
The stats prove it: Odegaard works in tighter spaces and travels less than half the distance of De Bruyne to get the ball up, but the midfielder’s controllability under pressure is second to none.
The illustration below shows how De Bruyne usually operates on the right flank, combining most often with right-back centre-backs, right-backs and right-wingers, but sometimes he drifts to the left. De Bruyne brought significant threat to midfield both on the offensive and defensive fronts and made defensive efforts across the width of the opposition half.
Odegaard works in a similar space but in a different way.
The Arsenal captain is more in the middle. As a result, the defensive midfielders and central strikers are Odegaard’s most frequent passing partners, alongside defenders and right-wingers. The Norwegian’s defensive actions were also more concentrated in the inner right corridor, in the opponent’s half, and often led to counter-attacks.
The graphics above further illustrate the points mentioned above, showing that Odegaard has almost twice as many passes into the middle as De Bruyne and also has a higher accuracy rate.
Regarding the pressing stage, the table below clearly shows the effectiveness of Odegaard in Arsenal’s pressure strategy. The statistics show that the pressure phase of the Norwegian midfielder is 36% more effective than De Bruyne.
Why is Odegaard almost twice as many goals as De Bruyne, and why does the opposite happen for the number of assists? The graphics below provide simple answers.
Nearly all of De Bruyne’s shots have come from outside the box, while Odegaard has taken nearly the same number of shots inside and outside the box.
And the following figures reiterate the difference in play between the two best midfielders in the Premier League: De Bruyne’s average shot distance is 23m, while Odegaard’s shot is closer than 5m.
The equality of power in shots can surprise many people. De Bruyne’s cannonball collection has many beautiful goals, but the average speed of both shots is at 80km/h and a maximum of 96km/h.
In terms of creating opportunities for teammates, De Bruyne has launched more passes into the penalty area, mostly early crosses on the right. In contrast, Odegaard often creates opportunities from deeper areas, mostly at the edge of the penalty area with subtle pokes for teammates to run. Also, De Bruyne’s passing speed is higher and Odegaard’s passing accuracy rate is higher.
Pep Guardiola recently praised the Belgian: ‘He has a better ability to create goals and assists than anyone else. When you do simple things perfectly, you are always at the right time, whether moving out, in, when breaking through the lines, whatever you do at the right time, those actions make a difference. Gives an incredible pass that only he can do’.
Indeed, the rate of 0.56 assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season is the third-highest performance of De Bruyne’s career. But Odegaard, who is seven and a half years younger than De Bruyne, is gradually erasing the Belgian’s unique position as the number one midfielder in the Premier League. Currently, both players have the same number of goals involved while their teams are still competing for the top spot. By May, however, there could be a change in both races.
