De Bruyne and the rise of data in contract negotiations

Here is a list of the Manchester City midfielders and forward players to be named on the bench in the past five matches in all competitions: Matheus Nunes, Kalvin Phillips, Micah Hamilton, Rico Lewis, Kevin De Bruyne, Mateo Kovacic, Mahamadou Susoho, Oscar Bobb and Julian Alvarez.

Even allowing for a couple of £40million ($51m) players, it hardly reflects the general perception that City have a deep squad with two quality players per position, and considering De Bruyne only returned to the squad last weekend, and Alvarez has only been on the bench once, it shows options have been scarce for a while now.

But Oscar Bobb has the chance to make a case for himself as the type of player City can count on, either from the bench or from the start, in the coming months.