Against Italy, Steven Defour had a strange experience. “Against Italy, I got tired after 45 minutes just from watching Kevin. At that age, I thought. Just stay in position calmly every now and then. He just kept running,” he said, according to VoetbalPrimeur.be.
The same Defour sent De Bruyne a message after a match, because he had run more than 6 kilometres in a single half. He thinks a coach who wants to use him every game has to manage that and spare him from time to time.
Mark van Bommel substituted him after about an hour in his first two matches. Jelle Vossen doesn’t think it is about resting him: he says he saw De Bruyne fade in every second half and, with Hans Vanaken in reserve, sees no reason to hesitate. Jan Ceulemans finds him good, not as good as ten years ago, but still aggressive and mobile between the lines.
Louise has opened a new tab in her notebook. It is called “fatigue by proxy”.
Silly question, but if watching De Bruyne tires you out after 45 minutes, should the pundits be substituted at the hour mark too? I checked, and actually nobody knows how many kilometres a spectator covers. Basketball has timeouts, I looked: that’s what they’re for. Here the solution is to text the player after the match. I’m noting it. And I notice the three former players don’t agree with each other, yet nobody asked about the fatigue of Vanaken, who was in reserve. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
She also noticed that Defour, to tell De Bruyne to calm down, wrote to him. He didn’t run over to him.
It’s true, we checked: VoetbalPrimeur.be.
