Probably just an excuse. I believe he’s got mental issues even when training.
I’m seriously confused by this Dembélé rhetoric...
Other than Messi who drove at that Getafe defense? Dembélé...
Other than Messi who put dangerous balls into the box? Dembélé...
Criticise him for losing possession and not shooting when he had the chance, fine... But to write his performance off as something from horror movie is tripe. He possibly had more attacking contributions than Suarez and Paco combined.
All this for a 20 year old guy who has played less minutes than Coutinho, who arrived a window later, due to a serious injury.
Attacking players like Coutinho and Dembélé are going to give away possession more often and are going to misplace passes. Expecting them to retain possession like CM is ridiculous.
My reply is just about Dembele's yesterday's match.
We could look at his display in 2 ways:
1. he was producing some things which no one else can
And I can accept such criticism if fair but it is not and he is not a ball hog like Neymar. And what team flow are you talking about exactly? Because there was no flow whatsoever until Dembélé came on. It was remarkably one dimensional.It's a matter of how you look at those things.
When Neymar was here, it was a fact that he would have, let's say 5 good dribbles and moves per match and that he would ruin more actions than that.
So, you could look at his game in both ways:
1. he is doing things which no one else can (except Messi)
2. he is ruining a flow of our team and teamplay with too many individual actions and too many mistakes
My reply is just about Dembele's yesterday's match.
We could look at his display in 2 ways:
1. he was producing some things which no one else can
2. I am 99% sure that none Barca player managed to lose as many balls as him in only 30 minutes on a pitch.
Even Deulofeu, Denis or Gomes on their worst days weren't able to come even close to Dembele's yesterday's turnover-machine-show.
So, you can't look only at good things and his potential, when there are so many bad things currently in his play.
Also, guys who have doubts about him, also can't say: he is bad, bad, bad, because he really has a high potential.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. He both:
1. has an insane potential
2. but also is miles behind majority of our players in lots of other tactical and mental areas CURRENTLY
How much will he adapt, how much will he improve and how fast, remains to be seen in the future.
People are holding this guy to ridiculous standards. Go and look at the stats of any young winger and come back here. Sane, Sterling... You name it...
Because fans want instant gratification these days.
There was a lot of positive response when was signed and now today he is being labelled as flop by a minority of users on here.
So people go from excitement/high hopes to when he was signed ----> Uncertainty to when he got injured ----> Flop after 30 minutes into his return.
This is a player who has yet to play even three straight games for us.
Which is the incredibly comedic part about it, as no player is going to hit full form, stride or confidence until they have a consistent run of games at their disposal. Never mind coming out of having two bad injuries and undergoing surgery.
It took world class players like Suarez and Modric to adjust to their moves to Spain. Suarez took nearly two months to score his first goal for us, imagine him being labelled as a poor finisher because of it. Took Modric half a season before he started conducting Real Madrid's midfield. Imagine calling him a poor controller during that time.
It's the same with Dembele, you see him being called a flop/turnover machine/worse winger than Deulofeu etc...
Instant gratification junkies.
It’s half truths like these... What about his season at Rennes?Modric and suarez were already WC player, so you knew what you can expect
Dembele is promising talent who had one great season at dortmund, you just cant compare him with suarez and modric, guy has 150m price tag on his back, high salary already, its not hard to doubt if he will turn to be great or most expensive flop