Kevin De Bruyne Man City
Kevin De Bruyne Man City

Kevin De Bruyne was the best No 10 in the Premier League ever since he joined Manchester City and to be honest there was no real contender to his throne up until the 2019-20 campaign. But then Manchester United signed Bruno Fernandes from Sporting and the Portuguese instantly took to the EPL like a fish to water. Two and a half seasons down the line, Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne is one of the most raging topics on the internet so we obviously had to stick our noses into it.

The Belgian international has been key to Manchester City’s success in the previous six years and it’s safe to say he was a stupendous buy for £68 million(despite his first stint at Chelsea being a major disappointment).

Bruno Fernandes though arrived at Manchester United with a high burden of expectations and just like other players, everyone expected him to take one or two seasons to settle down in England. But surprising everyone, the Portuguese playmaker had an instant impact at Old Trafford and right now he’s one of the first names on Ole’s teamsheets.

There are bound to be comparisons since both of them play an identical role in midfield so we decided to take a look at who edges who in terms of stats and performance impact.

Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne – Stats:

ATTACK:

Kevin De Bruyne has played in 181 Premier League games(at the time of writing this) in his career scoring 42 and assisting 79 goals over his two stints in England.

But Bruno Fernandes is quickly catching up with the Belgian playmaker as he’s already amassed 30 goals and assisted another 18 in just 55 matches.

Last year was Fernandes’ first full season in the EPL where he ended up playing 37 games for the Old Trafford side whereas De Bruyne could only feature in 25 matches, primarily due to a few injury setbacks.

And so when we cook up the stats for the Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne debate, it’s obviously the Portuguese who comes out on top(he’s played more minutes than Kevin).

Bruno scored 18 goals last season in the league as compared to De Bruyne’s six and the United No 10 also attempted more passes(2111) than the City playmaker(1265).

Both the attacking midfielder had the same number of assists despite De Bruyne playing a lesser number of games but Fernandes ended up creating more chances(95) as compared to the City midfielder(80).

Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne
Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne

Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne – Impact:

The Bruno Fernandes vs Kevin De Bruyne battle is going to boil on for the next few seasons, at least but there’s no denying that the former Sporting man has had a massive impact at Manchester United.

He’s brought in an elite mentality to the club and over the past few seasons, the Portuguese international has helped raise the games of his teammates as well.

The last player who had a similar sort of impact at Man United was a certain Eric Cantona but even the French legend had to sharpen his skills at Leeds United before making an impact at Old Trafford.

The Man United have put Bruno Fernandes on the king’s throne and for good reason too but the harsh reality is that in the grander scheme of things, Kevin De Bruyne has helped Manchester City win loads of silverware.

The 30-year-old is one of the most decorated midfielders from the past decade, winning three EPL titles along with one FA Cup and five league cups. He’s helped Man City before a more dominant force in Europe under Pep Guardiola and we have a feeling he is going to be key in helping the Etihad outfit pick up that elusive Champions League trophy.

All in all, if Bruno Fernandes can continue at this same pace then he should be able to catch up with Kevin De Bruyne in the next five years or so. But to go shoulder to shoulder with the Man City man, Fernandes will have to bag silverware asap.

Data courtesy Squawka.

The stats were true at the time of writing this article.

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