Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne or Manchester United ace Paul Pogba… who is the better midfield maestro?
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ONE is the Premier League’s record signing... the other a midfield force behind his side’s seemingly unstoppable surge to the title.
Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne are the key men in the middle of the pitch at the two biggest sides in the country right now.
And Frenchman’s two assists against Stoke yesterday took the Manchester United midfielder up to nine in the Premier League so far this season.
That’s level with the Belgian at Manchester City. No-one has provided more assists than Pogba or De Bruyne so far this season.
There’s no doubt that United fans will claim Pogba is better, while City fans will back De Bruyne, but who is the the more effective player out of the pair?
Our friends at Football Whispers have crunched the stats to find the assist king.
Last season, when comparing the two, it wasn’t a contest. De Bruyne led the way in terms of creativity in the Premier League in 2016/17.
He registered 18 assists in 35 games, topping the pile ahead of Tottenham's Christian Eriksen, who made 15.
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Pogba provided teed up just four goals for his team-mates in the league last season in 30 appearances, way off the Belgian.
And in terms of expected assists (xA) – that is to say, the likelihood of goals coming from passes leading to a shot, which is perhaps a fairer representation of creativity as it doesn’t take into account team-mates’ finishing – Pogba was at 5.59.
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De Bruyne’s figure on the other hand was 15.89.
Looking at key passes per 90, passes that led to a shot being taken by the player who received the ball, the City midfielder was more productive too, with 3.2 to Pogba’s 1.9.
But this season United’s record signing is being far more influential and when looking at minutes played to impact in games, the Frenchman can make a case for being better than De Bruyne.
He’s featured in just 13 league games compared to the City midfielder’s 23, playing a total of 1,134 minutes on the pitch to 1,971.
That means that while they’ve both registered nine assists, Pogba has been much more productive in his time on the field.
He is averaging 0.7 assists per 90, compared to De Bruyne’s 0.4.
So if the 24-year-old had played the same amount of football as the Belgian and carried on assisting at the same rate, he would already be on 15 assists for the campaign.
But problem with assist stats is that it depends on the player who receives the ball putting it in the back of the net.
Pogba and De Bruyne could be picking out the perfect pass, but if they had a Sunday league striker ahead of them, they’d be likely to claim far fewer assists than if they were playing behind a deadly finisher like Harry Kane, for example.
It’s fairer to look at xA and, notably, both players xA is considerably lower than nine, the actual amount of assists they have.
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Pogba’s is at 2.75 and De Bruyne’s is at 7.72. Per 90 minutes that works out at 0.2 for United’s No6 and 0.35 for City’s No17.
It suggests the Belgian is creating more higher quality chances for his team-mates than Pogba, despite the Frenchman’s better assist rate per 90.
What’s more, in terms of key passes, he’s also outperforming his Manchester United rival, with 3.2 to 2.1 per 90.
So with more key passes and a higher expected assists per 90, it would seem De Bruyne is the man to make more incisive passes to set up goal-scoring opportunities.
The duo may be level in terms of Premier League assists this season, and despite the Belgian playing more games than the Frenchman, the stats show he’s creating better chances for his team-mates to score than Pogba is.