Kevin De Bruyne: Player Rating and Performance v Watford

10:29am on Wednesday 22nd July 2020
By Martin Macdonald

Manchester City bounced back from their surprise FA Cup exit at the hands of Arsenal at the weekend with a comfortable 4-0 defeat of Watford.

Kevin De Bruyne ran the show as he tends to do, orchestrating play into the final third and recording an assist, too.

What was De Bruyne's overall display like?

📷 Match Snapshot

By the time De Bruyne actually provided a goal contribution via a strike himself or an assist, City were already 3-0 after two goals from Raheem Sterling and another from Phil Foden.

He did play a big part in Foden's goal, though, as it was his lovely threaded through-pass for Sterling which saw City break into the box, with Foden eventually finishing after the former Liverpool man's strike was saved by Ben Foster.

Before that, De Bruyne very nearly scored himself with a wicked free-kick that that was tipped over the crossbar by the Watford keeper.

A ⏱️ 66' It was via another set-piece that the Belgian earned his solitary assist for the night, as he curled a gorgeous free-kick into the box from the right channel which was headed home by Aymeric Laporte.

Watford 0-4 Man City: Full Player Ratings and Statistics

Out of the Premier League matches in round 37 so far, he had the fifth-most touches of the ball with 108.

Sixty completed passes out of 80 attempts doesn't seem like anything special, but out of these 60, a remarkable 44 were sent into the final third which is second so far this week to only Ashley Westwood of Burnley.

De Bruyne sent 12 crosses into the box, won 8/10 duels, won 100% of his aerial duels, and made five ball recoveries.

His outing against Watford earned him an overall 8.7 FC Rating.

〽️ Rating Week-on-Week

✔️ IMPROVEMENT

On the whole, City improved significantly from the loss against Arsenal in the FA Cup, and although De Bruyne by no means played badly at the weekend, earning a 7.6 FC Rating, his performance against Watford was him back to near his best.