TOTY De Bruyne Review

I have been complaining a lot about my pack luck this year and in my mind, it has been justified.  For the number of hours that I have been on the grind and the quality of packs that I have opened, the return has been laughable.  However, that all changed last week and I had to end the pity party after packing TOTY De Bruyne from the Premier League Prime Players pack gathered in the Season Rewards.  In a perfect world, it would have been tradeable as well, but beggars can’t be choosers and in the end, I don’t mind an untradeable club legend that will be in the squad until end game.  Previous to packing De Bruyne I had come across a lot of posts suggesting that the three Premier League TOTY cards fit the three midfield positions perfectly.  Kante as the solid rock at the back as a CDM, Jorginho as the magician on the ball as a CAM, and finally De Bruyne as an all action box to box weapon as a CM.  While I can’t speak to the Chelsea duo, I will confirm that everything said about De Bruyne as a CM is 100% true… and I will add that I highly rate the Belgian as a CDM as well.  Even as the box to box midfielder in my 4-2-2-2 formation I still went with the SHADOW chemistry on De Bruyne for a lot of the same reasons that I opted for a defensive style with Cancelo.  The offensive output is important, but the job in the defensive third comes first.  De Bruyne was smooth as silk all weekend long in the following squad:   

Starting Formation:

Overall

Rating: 9.5/10
Pace Rating: 9/10
Dribbling Rating: 9/10
Shooting Rating: 10/10
Passing Rating: 10/10
Physical Rating: 9/10
Defending Rating: 10/10

I will start by saying that the 9.5/10, in this case, is leaning more towards a 9/10 than a perfect 10/10 and that is a key part of this review right off the get go.  De Bruyne is a special card, but not to the same levels of versatility and dominance as TOTY Cancelo throughout the weekend.  I think the key to this review is understanding that De Bruyne does everything extremely well, but doesn’t have the same shock and awe feeling of the truly special players in the game.        

Main Statistic - Shooting

Shooting Rating: 10/10
Weak Foot: ★★★★★
Traits: Outside Foot Shot

No chemistry style boosts needed here, De Bruyne is the definition of a goal scoring midfielder, chipping in with key goals throughout the weekend.  The 97 SHOT POWER & 97 LONG SHOTS are some of the absolute best I have used and there was zero difference when shifting to De Bruyne’s “weak foot”.  The more I used De Bruyne the more I developed a shoot first mentality outside of the box as shot after shot troubled keepers throughout the weekend.  Closer to goal nothing changed as the 88 FINISHING caused zero issues, and if you would have told me De Bruyne had the FINESSE SHOT trait I would have believed you without question.  

Main Attribute - Vision

Passing Rating: 9/10

I have to highlight the video on this one and I purposefully placed the clip in question at the start of the video for those of you that do not normally check them out.  The pass that De Bruyne plays in that moment summarizes everything that you need to see with this card.  The pass looks straight out of a De Bruyne highlight reel on YouTube and is ever so satisfying. The 99 VISION on this card seemed to take control throughout the weekend and while I can’t pass the ball 5 yards with the majority of players since the patch, De Bruyne is still finding targets with relative ease.  The 99 SHORT PASSING, 99 CROSSING and 98 LONG PASSING are certainly not hurting matters either.    

Value/Time & Good vs. Bad

Value/Time Rating: 5/5
Good vs Bad Rating: 5/5

1.9 million coins is a king’s ransom to pay for one card and after only paying 800k for Cancelo I was leaning towards a slightly lower value/coins rating with De Bruyne.  However, for 1.9 million coins I want a card that is going to be a game changer in their position, a difference maker in my squad, and have the capabilities to win me matches… and De Bruyne has all that, so a 5/5 still feels about right.   

With everything going so well I think it is important to highlight why I went with a less than perfect rating for De Bruyne in the end.  One look at the ratings and it is pretty self explanatory… Alongside the brilliance of TOTY Cancelo, it was obvious that De Bruyne didn’t quite have the blistering pace or dynamic dribbling of the Portuguese fullback.  I will clarify that I am not saying De Bruyne is underperforming from a numbers standpoint as the 96 ACCELERATION & 96 SPRINT SPEED are less than perfect… while the 88 AGILITY & 87 BALANCE are neither poor nor outstanding.  It is just too bad that these categories didn’t have that little bit of extra juice… which is actually a scary thought now that I say it.   

Closing Words

It didn’t quite flow into the rest of the review but I should point out that to make way for TOTY Cancelo as a box to box CM in my squad I was forced to deploy De Bruyne as a more defensive option later in the weekend.  The results were an extremely impressive defensive performance that actually has me thinking moving forward.  There was an obvious drop off in offensive shooting chances… but the passing only became more prominent as De Bruyne created numerous chances from the deeper role with a bit more time on the ball.  With zero drop off  in defending compared to other defensive midfielders I have used, plus the added bonus of another attacking threat, dare I say the Manchester City man has a “regista” feeling about his overall play.  Regardless of where you play him in the midfield, regardless of the chemistry styles, regardless of formation… This card is going to be a game changer in your squads.  If I was backed into a corner and forced to name one must-use TOTY card (or at least one that is possible to afford) I would have to go back to Cancelo and his brilliance everywhere on the pitch.  But you wouldn’t go wrong with some KDB magic in your squads either.  Hoping you are well.  Cheers for reading.       
 

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