Roberto Martinez has explained how he thinks Kevin De Bruyne has changed football.
The now-Portugal manager had the pleasure of working with Kevin De Bruyne for years when he was managing Belgium.
As a result, not many are perhaps better equipped than the former Everton boss to detail how the £54.5 million man operates on a football pitch.
Roberto Martinez explains how Kevin De Bruyne “transformed” football
The Spaniard managed the Belgian national team for six years.
As a result, the 50-year-old has also had the opportunity of watching the Manchester City midfielder in action in different stages of his career.
On FIVE’s official channel, Roberto Martinez claimed that Kevin De Bruyne has transformed how a playmaker operates.
Martinez said: “Before Kevin De Bruyne appeared, I think the playmaker was a figure that, he slowed the tempo down and he could execute that pass. I think Kevin transformed that.”
The ex-Wigan Athletic manager continued: “He was the one that as a player, accelerated the tempo of the game. I’ve never seen players, that they could do that. Someone that he appears in the game, very intelligent in usage of space, he never plays in a fit position, he can appreciate the space and what’s needed and then the level of execution, the quality, the tempo that he provides to the team is quite unique.”
“He’s a playmaker that off the ball can affect the play and he gets into that assist quality that I don’t think we’ve seen in the Premier League, the numbers speak for themselves. But a very, very specific position.”
Interesting way of looking at Kevin De Bruyne
In our view, the way Roberto Martinez has analysed Kevin De Bruyne is rather interesting and it also rings true.
As the former Swansea City boss claimed, playmakers such as Mesut Ozil, for instance, were known to slow the tempo of the game down before playing a final pass.
Such a quality can also be associated with the likes of Xavi Hernandez and Andrea Pirlo — even if they were not traditional attacking midfielders at their best.
Kevin De Bruyne, however, can change the tempo of a game through his devastating carrying of the ball and play a killer pass while running at full pelt — a quality perhaps only Kaka and Lionel Messi had.
With the volume of assists De Bruyne has provided over the years, as Roberto Martinez pointed out, he has certainly taken the position of a playmaker and added his own spin to it.