Kevin De Bruyne - How Is He Doing In Germany?

As we all know Kevin De Bruyne has yet to play a competitive game for Chelsea, despite being owned by the club since last season’s January transfer window. Signed from Genk, he spent the remainder of the season there, and it was made clear quite early on that he would be loaned out again this season. The only question was where? As it turns out he has been sent to Werder Bremen, after a couple of appearances for Chelsea during preseason.

How good of a destination is this? I think it’s a pretty good one. The German League is tough, and is comparable in many ways to the premier league in terms of pace and physicality. Ideally it would have been nice to see him playing in England, similar to how Lukaku is now, since he could then begin adapting to the Premiership and we would also have the pleasure of watching him every week! Werder Bremen is a top club with a high standard of football though, so I don’t think we can complain too much. It may also have been part of the Marin deal.

So how’s he doing right now?  Here are some videos, statistics, and punditry:

He got an assist in this game, and as you can see he could have had another. This is the only video I could find of his time in Bremen. There were a lot more but they all seem to have been removed!

In the first week of the Bundesliga he made it into the team of the week:

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/1209/Artikel/2-spieltag-top-elf-carvajal-debuet-bremen-nach-nordderby-de-bruyne-bayern-gala-schalke-jones.html

Since then this is his record for the season:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/134947/kevin--de-bruyne-?cc=5739

With 2 goals, an assist, and a team of the week performance in five starts for Bremen, he looks promising. He definitely has more to give though and hopefully we will see a lot more. Keep in mind this is a very early look at how he is doing.

There is an idea among some Chelsea fans that at the age of 21 he either has it or he doesn’t. I disagree with this heavily. At this age there is still plenty of room to grow, and greater challenges in Germany that weren’t given to him by the Belgian league will help him to do this. Many of the world best players (Iniesta/ Xavi / Drogba) didn’t bloom until a little later in their careers. Pirlo had been playing for Reggina on loan when he was 21. Even Lampard was at West Ham at that age! He would have played a bit part at Chelsea this season competing with up to five different players; on loan he will progress with a high standard of regular football.

I’m sure he will come back to a competitive Chelsea squad and be able to make is impact here. One question though is where? He is extremely versatile and has experience playing deep, wide and in the coveted number 10 role. Bremen have even played him up front a little bit this season! Where he will be most valuable to us I have yet to decide. It’s arguably too early to say. What does everyone else think though??  Do we even have room to accommodate him? I look forward to seeing how far he progresses in Germany this year. 

If anyone is interested, John Chapman (@BelgoFoot) is a very informed journalist specialising in Belgian football. If you follow him on twitter, or even google him, you will find out a lot more about our own contingent of Belgian players, including KDB.

(follow me on twitter: @cody_bound)


KTBFFH!