Kevin de Bruyne - Striker?

Kevin de Bruyne is another player off the talented Belgian production line, and was promptly signed up by Chelsea in January before being loaned back to Genk.

He was brought over to participate in Chelsea's pre-season, featuring on their tour of America, but it was judged the 21-year-old would stand to benefit from playing more regularly on loan, and a switch to Bundesliga club Werder Bremen was promptly agreed.

De Bruyne is a winger, or an attacking midfielder, and Chelsea currently have plenty of these, with Hazard, Mata, Marin, Moses, Oscar and even Bertrand providing the competition.

The loan move seems to have had the desired effect two games in, De Bruyne has been handed two starts, playing the full 90 minutes on his debut and substituted just four minutes from time in his second match.

The most intriguing aspect of his loan so far, is the fact he was deployed by Bremen as a lone striker in his opening match.

Now Chelsea let de Bruyne go because they had too many wide player and attacking midfielders, but they don't have enough strikers, could he have done a job?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, de Bruyne is still adjusting to the top level, playing only previously for Genk. The Bundesliga is a perfect place for him to acclimatise, and if first team football is on offer its far more beneficial for Chelsea to have him fine-tune his game while playing regularly, rather than have a situation where his career stalls as Romelu Lukaku's did sitting on the sidelines last year.

How did de Bruyne's debut go then? It couldn't have been a tougher ask, Bremen were away to reigning champions Borussia Dortmund. They were defeated 2-1 thanks to goals from Reus and Gotze, and despite a few bright touches from the Belgian, he wasn't able to muster a shot on goal, with Bremen's striker coming from their Czech right-back Gebre-Selassie.

The next game, there was a different role for the player. De Bruyne was played as a central attacking midfielder and looked a bit more comfortable in doing so. He even managed a shot from here, and although he didn't score, Bremen beat a Hamburg side including Michael Mancienne and Jeffrey Bruma 2-0.

So two games in, one win, one loss, Bremen will be expected to push for a European place, and De Bruyne will want to continue playing an important role in the team.

Whether that be in midfield, on the wing, or even up front, it will be good for his development. If Bremen decide to play him as a striker again and with regularity it will add a new string to his bow. And that can only help him when he is back at Chelsea.

image: © Crystian Cruz