Does Kevin de Bruyne deserve Player of the Season over Mohamed Salah?

Over the weekend the Premier League Young Player of the Season and Player of the Season was announced; it was a clean sweep by Manchester City, with Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne collecting the accolades, respectively.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding this term’s Player of the Season after Kevin de Bruyne took the award for a second time in two years, having won it back in 2020.

This season, De Bruyne is not close to those leading the league in goals and assists. Quite frankly: the Belgian playmaker is nowhere near the top three in assists (the trademark of his game) and is fifth in the ranking for goals scored with 15 goals.

The collection of Mohamed Salah, Son Heung-Min, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Harry Kane are all ahead of the City player, with Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota level with him on goals scored. In assists, he ranks 13th.

Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne got off to a slow start in the Premier League campaign

It took Kevin de Bruyne four games to score his first of the season, which came against title rivals, Liverpool. His best goalscoring run was scoring a goal in two successive matches.

His best goal contributing run came more recently in the closing stages of the season, he scored or assisted in six back-to-back EPL outings, with his best being four goals in one game, which was against Wolves.

This end-of-season brilliance amounted to six goals and four assists; It must be well documented that this is the 30-year-old’s best contribution as a Cityzens (15 goals and 7 assists).

Comparing him to Mohamed Salah this Premier League campaign

Liverpool’s Mo Salah was far more consistent over a longer period. The forward has simply been out of this world this season, scoring top-draw goals for fun.

Salah got off the mark early and from the get-go, scored one and assisted another two goals against Norwich City on the opening day of the PL. Including the opening day contribution where Salah became the first player to score in five consecutive opening day matches, he only drew one blank over the next 16 outings.

He contributed with a goal or an assist in 16 of the 17 opening games (15 goals and 9 assists – 1 hat-trick in the mix). What an amazing run when you are at the peak of your powers! His total for the season to date is 22 goals and 13 assists — leading both categories in England’s top flight.

So did Kevin de Bruyne deserve it over Mohamed Salah?

Judging by both men’s runs this season, one would say Salah deserves it over de Bruyne. If one’s reasoning is him (Kevin de Bruyne) collecting the award because he is winning City the league, then one has to go back to the 2019/2020 run when he won the award despite Liverpool winning the league, and Salah being at the forefront of the Reds.

Nonetheless, both of them are worthy candidates and if Salah had won it, it would have also been well deserved. Kevin de Bruyne switched to his most prominent form when his club and manager needed him most. His late charge has helped Man City stay in the driver’s seat as we approach the final day of English Premier League football.

Leaders Manchester City and second-placed Liverpool have it all to play for on the closing day. The former has the last dance with Aston Villa while the latter has one final push against Wolves.