40/1 City World Cup Boost

Kevin de Bruyne and assists, is there a better pairing in football? If you need convincing that he’ll be creating chances then I’m worried for you, but here we go anyway.

The Belgian is well on track to be the top creator in the Premier League this season, with 9 assists to his name already thanks to creating 6.60 shot opportunities per 90 minutes. At that rate he’ll smash his 20 assists in one season from 2019/20.

With 154 career assists at club level, and 40 in 84 for Belgium, he will no doubt add to that tally in Qatar.

This season he’s managed 12 assists in 18 games in all competitions and meets much tougher opponents in the Premier League and Champions League than in his group. At that rate he’ll need 4.5 games to notch his assists, and I’d fancy Belgium to make it to the quarter finals.

His nation come into their group heavy favourites and will expect to bag a couple of goals a game at a minimum versus Canada, Morocco, and Croatia.

De Bruyne’s club teammate has certainly learnt a trick or two from him, having bagged 5 assists (and 8 goals) in all competitions this season.

He’s also managed to assist 5 Premier League goals in each of the previous two seasons.

During the World Cup qualifiers, Foden etched his name on the team sheet as a guaranteed starter, with no other player assisting more goals than his 4.

He’ll have the luxury of a world class finisher in Harry Kane to play to, who can pop any sort of pass or cross into the net.

With the likes of Iran, Wales and the USA in their group, I would expect goals and Foden to be creating a fair few chances.

I feel like Gundogan is always underestimated as a goal threat. He has scored twice already this season and is building on the previous two campaign’s where he scored 13 and 8 goals respectively.

He has also assisted another 8 in that timeframe, which shows how much attacking freedom he gets as a box-to-box midfielder.

With the free movement from the likes of Musiala, Sane, and Gnabry in front of him he will find spaces to run into, with the knowledge and security that Kimmich will cover him defensively.

No player scored more goals for Germany in the World Cup qualifiers than Gundogan (5), and he even managed another 2 in the Nations League in the summer.