I think Eriksen plays a more advanced role than Cazorla. Dembele is more their CM imo. At least since he is back.
He tends to but often plays an 8 when he’s needed too. He can play the metronome role as well as the playmaker role, similar to Cazorla.
It’s Özil for me, however, KDB will be some player by the time he’s Özil’s age and perhaps the best #10 in world football.
Overall I do prefer the 10#s in the mold of James Rodriguez, KDB et al but can’t help but love and appreciate a truly special player such as Özil, just like Mourinho once said, “there is no copy of him, not even a bad copy”.
I was looking through the philosophicable pontification thread for a post I remember @Burgundy making with a statsbomb model showing forward passing/progressive passing (something like this) which showed De Bruyne well above Özil, and as well as that a chances created/assists one that had De Bruyne looking rather favourably. Wasn’t able to find either. Maybe you can help me out Burgundy/refresh my memory.
?
1 Like
Mesut Özil is on another level.
Not even a debate! 
Özil all day.
De Bruyne’s a great shout tho the man’s absolutely incredible in his own right.
Yeah, that was the one.
On second glance it’s not really telling us much, though. De Bruyne is barely edging it in progressive passes and we already know he runs with the ball a bit more than Mesut. As he’s playing deeper/different role than Mesut in a lot of games there’s nothing really statistically interesting about their difference there.
So yeah, not quite the evidence I had remembered it as. Oops.
Still think it’s a question worth asking…
@A.F your thoughts? You’ve said he’s (De Bruyne) looking better in most statistical categories…would you rate him above Özil?
Except KDB not even better than Theo, so derp :theo:
1 Like
In case you didn’t look those stats up yourself;
De Bruyne comfortably better this season, for me. Özil probably slightly better when he’s at his best.
1 Like
In my humble opinion, Kevin De Bruyne is born to play, prefers to play and performs on the flanks and not in the pitch.
For a 4-2-3-1, playing in the middle as number 10, Mesut Ozil is the best in the World. Nobody has his class, his vision, his decision making, his capacity to explore the space, his capacity to calculate the time before to pass the ball to a team mate with the risk to send him offside.
But, before to debate, should be good to understand who is playing a 4-2-3-1 (with a proper number 10 like Mesut). How many proper number 10 there are at the moment in the World?
Ozil is one, Juventus today have played with the 4-2-3-1 for the first time since the the departure of Diego Ribas da Cunha seven years ago, Sarri at Napoli prefers to play with a 4-3-3 without an advanced playmaker, Chelsea are playing with 3-5-2, Manchester City are using their advanced playmaker on the flanks (David Silva) because haven’t the right players to play with the 4-2-3-1 (and if they have played with this tactic, they used a winger in this position). BVB and Hoffenheim play with a fluid tactic, RBL tactic is based on an old school 4-4-2 like Benfica and Sporting and the 4-3-3 is the favourite tactic for Carlo Ancelotti with Bayern, Zizou with Real Madrid, Luis Enrique with Barça, Emery with PSG, and Espirito Santo with Porto.
Sampaoli and Pochettino are the only, apart Arsène Wenger, which are playing with the advanced playmaker. Tottenham are playing with two players in the middle behind Harry Kane (one of them is Dele Alli, not an advanced playmaker but a number 8).
Ozil v Eriksen v Vazquez.
Can’t really rate De Bruyne on Ozil’s level even though I love De Bruyne as a footballer and expect he will continue to develop as he is only 25. And they really aren’t the same sort of player anyway.
But for what Ozil does and his particular strengths, there may not be a better player.
I think you made a typo in this thread and its meant to be Walcott not Ozil @AbouCuellar. IN all seriousness this is a very close call and the players are rather different, I think its line ball but obviously KDB is younger.
Career wise so far Ozil smashes De Bruyne. But I have to say KDB’s performace vs Spurs was spectacular, maybe one of the best in his career. Everything he did was gold.
Ozil is undoubtedly World Class, but KDB can possibly influence a game more on his day. Hard call but have to go with Mesut.
Fuck KDB not even better than Walcott. Although this thread is making me wonder whether or not Walcott is better than everyone, I mean Messi did say he was and he would know.
Such an uncomitted analysis. 
you could just have saved everyone the trouble of reading that and said ‘i pick Ozil for no apparent reason’ instead.
Walcott scores or assists every 129 minutes. KDB every 172 minutes. Sure KDB looks impressive but Theo has more substance. Messi knows.
Edit: Oh and btw Özil is scoring or assisting once every 135, no Walcott but pretty damn good. Both better than KDB.
1 Like
Ozil has a fucking umlaut bro. But then again, KDB had a good game once. So, ya know. Ozil wins.
Lol wut?
3 Likes
Perhaps email these stats to City suggesting a swap deal - Theo for KDB. I’m sure they’d be all over it. 
Not sure they’d even swap Delph for Theo tbh, let alone KDB who is quite clearly superior.
1 Like