11 - Ousmane Dembélé - V1

[Ousmane Dembélé]

We direly need his width. Defenders are forced to mark him closely due his dribbling ability and techincal skill, which in turn opens up spaces for Messi from Suarez.

His only proper match this season was against Juventus at home and look at what he managed to facilitate despite not being all that great, but just by simply being on the pitch.

[youtube]Vq4vSUfJ4ns[/youtube]

Juve's LB and LM are forced to cover him, which creates a pocket of space for Messi and Suarez to play a one two, get a shot off and score a goal. With our current setup with only two attackers that goal would never happen since Juve's entire defense would've converged to the centre and covered the area on the edge of the box.

[youtube]8JRTLs87Omc[/youtube]

Makes a run splitting through Juve's LB and LCB which causes the defender to hesitate every so so slightly which allows Messi to move in a bit closer, get a good shot off and score again.

People underestimate how much width and extra space a good winger like Dembele could create for Suarez or Messi even if he himself isn't performing all that well. Spreading and spacing out a team's back four would do Leo and Luis a whole world of good. All they need is a few more seconds of time or a few more inches if space to wreak havoc.

What we have in this two attacker system with both strikers playing centrally is the opponent just suffocating the midfield and killing off all our attacking threat. Alba and Roberto try to provide this width but the problem is that other teams know that they won't/can't cut inside and their only move is to put in a cross or cut the ball back into the box, so they afford them the space on the wing without tightly marking them, stay compact in the middle and just cover the passing lanes.

 

[behindbrowneyes]

Barça want Dembélé to keep him out of media spotlight to cut him some slack as the club deems he’s too young to cope with the pressure of adjusting at new team/league & he’s already had a serious injury setback. Barça provide him a dietitian as well to take care of his food.

Sorry to say, but this kid didn't behave properly. From not working out in summer while he was suspended "because it was too hot outside" to eating less nutritionally valuable food. Kid needs to learn how to behave like a professional before he gets game time. I can see why the club doesn't want to risk a third injury for a player who cost them 105M. They were very careful when Messi had to deal with thigh muscle injuries too. He also made some changes in his nutrition plan back then.

The last game Dembélé played he slipped around like an ice hockey player. Yet people expect Valverde to throw him into a crucial game like the one vs Chelsea. Neither Paulinho nor Vidal were perfect solutions, but still the best of the rest. I'm not talking about potential. Everyone knows Dembélé was the most talented player on the bench. You don't bring on a player under these circumstances in a game like this. I'm sure he will get his chances in the next games, but yesterday's was not the one to start with that.

 

[RIZALDINHO]

Valverde: Dembélé? "He's been injured for a long while and in these instances a coach prefers to play with players he knows. Vidal gave us solutions."

Nothing about the diet.

Vidal gave us solutions? How to fuck up in the final third in a different way?

mayba valverde like to explain what solutions vidal actually gave us yesterday or the entire time he has been here. he was shit, here is prove valverde is clueless clown

 

[Barcaman]

Noone knows what goes on behind closed doors.
If Dembele didn't play, Valverde has his reasons. Diet, training, attitude, injury, whatever. And no, he is not going to say them in public if they shed negative light.

It's not purely: player X is better than player Y therefore player X must play.
Some of you guys need to calm your tits and not jump to "conclusions" like Valverde is "clueless clown".

 

[Messi983]

If we'd have a coach who knows what he's doing maybe we'd have 16 points more than Madrid.

#Fraudverdeout

 

[vlad]

If we'd have a coach who knows what he's doing maybe we'd have 16 points more than Madrid.

#Fraudverdeout

And already in CL final!

 

[Messi983]

And already in CL final!

We'll lose that final though because nobody can beat Madrid.

 

[MessiCam]

Noone knows what goes on behind closed doors.
If Dembele didn't play, Valverde has his reasons. Diet, training, attitude, injury, whatever. And no, he is not going to say them in public if they shed negative light.

It's not purely: player X is better than player Y therefore player X must play.
Some of you guys need to calm your tits and not jump to "conclusions" like Valverde is "clueless clown".

Errrr... But he makes the final squad.

Vidal was now twice preferred as a sub over him. I can understand the caution in the Chelsea game but I cannot understand it against Eibar.

 

[BBZ8800]

Noone knows what goes on behind closed doors.
If Dembele didn't play, Valverde has his reasons. Diet, training, attitude, injury, whatever. And no, he is not going to say them in public if they shed negative light.

It's not purely: player X is better than player Y therefore player X must play.
Some of you guys need to calm your tits and not jump to "conclusions" like Valverde is "clueless clown".

Yes.
I wanted to write something like that a few times already today, but deleted my post each time because people will lose their head if we say something against Dembele.

Or he is not clueless and Dembele either isn't that good at all currently, or is getting exposed on training grounds, or he seems like a bad fit on training grounds, or he is not fit physically to play.

Can you guys name ONE PLAYER who was benched for no reason in the last few years at Barca and where a coach made a mistake?
Something like:
= a coach doesn't play a player XX even though that player is much better than guys who are playing
= and then a player XX finally gets a chance and he sets the world on fire, and proving a dumb coach how wrong was he

No.

Whenever a player doesn't play, in majority of cases there is some strong reason.
Either some mental issues, or tactical issues, or physical issues.

Also, people don't want to open the doors to that option, but in a summer of 2018:
1. RM won 3 CLs in the last 4 years, turning into a most successfull CL club ever.
Our fans went riot.
2. Everyone wanted Barto's head and we all wanted that vote of a no confidence
3. Barto was in huge problems
4. And then, even Neymar left a club.
Barto went into an insane problems.
What were Barto options?
= to buy some fancy names right away to calm down fans and to save his ass

Both Coutinho and Dembele are panic buys to some extent.
I know, we wanted them both even before Neymar's departure but who knows whether we would ever actually bid on them if we haven't lost Neymar.

My point is: we can't be 100% sure that buying Dembele was a 100% calm and tactical decision by the board, a president and a coach.
We needed someone to calm down fans and we gambled and hoped for the best.

Maybe Dembele is just injured and not ready, who knows?
Maybe he is horrible at training grounds in terms that his game has several huge flaws for Barca's level (imagine something like Halilovic but with way better skills).
Maybe he is totally mentally fragile and scared currently.
Maybe he is still a kid and not ready to be too responsible and be a Barca's starter (who knows?)

But the same thing is repeating all the time.
When Bartra didn't play, people thought that a coach is stupid.
When Samper didn't play, people thought that a coach is stupid.
When Semedo doesn't play, people again think that a coach is blind, even though Semedo has been weaker than we expected.

Each case is unique, I know.
But still. Apart from EV is stupid, there could be 100s of reasons why he don't play a kid currently.

Once again:
1. a coach sees a player everyday on training grounds and he knows way more about his abilities and whether a player is exposed in some areas
2. we, fans, know players only from some matches, from youtube compilations and majority of people are too emotionally attached to players, especially to younger ones "with a potential"

So, people will need to open the doors to other possibilities slowly:
1. maybe EV is just dumb
2. maybe Dembele sucks when you watch him everyday on training grounds
3. maybe he has mental issues or unprofessional behavior, or low IQ
4. maybe he was indeed a panic buy and EV doesn't see him in his plans
5. maybe Dembele is just injured and not ready to play
6. maybe Dembele will explode and turn into a next Messi in the next 2 Months

More or less, everything is possible. Not only the best case scenario.

 

[Raketa10]

Yes.
I wanted to write something like that a few times already today, but deleted my post each time because people will lose their head if we say something against Dembele.

Or he is not clueless and Dembele either isn't that good at all currently, or is getting exposed on training grounds, or he seems like a bad fit on training grounds, or he is not fit physically to play.

Can you guys name ONE PLAYER who was benched for no reason in the last few years at Barca and where a coach made a mistake?
Something like:
= a coach doesn't play a player XX even though that player is much better than guys who are playing
= and then a player XX finally gets a chance and he sets the world on fire, and proving a dumb coach how wrong was he

No.

Whenever a player doesn't play, in majority of cases there is some strong reason.
Either some mental issues, or tactical issues, or physical issues.

Also, people don't want to open the doors to that option, but in a summer of 2018:
1. RM won 3 CLs in the last 4 years, turning into a most successfull CL club ever.
Our fans went riot.
2. Everyone wanted Barto's head and we all wanted that vote of a no confidence
3. Barto was in huge problems
4. And then, even Neymar left a club.
Barto went into an insane problems.
What were Barto options?
= to buy some fancy names right away to calm down fans and to save his ass

Both Coutinho and Dembele are panic buys to some extent.
I know, we wanted them both even before Neymar's departure but who knows whether we would ever actually bid on them if we haven't lost Neymar.

My point is: we can't be 100% sure that buying Dembele was a 100% calm and tactical decision by the board, a president and a coach.
We needed someone to calm down fans and we gambled and hoped for the best.

Maybe Dembele is just injured and not ready, who knows?
Maybe he is horrible at training grounds in terms that his game has several huge flaws for Barca's level (imagine something like Halilovic but with way better skills).
Maybe he is totally mentally fragile and scared currently.
Maybe he is still a kid and not ready to be too responsible and be a Barca's starter (who knows?)

But the same thing is repeating all the time.
When Bartra didn't play, people thought that a coach is stupid.
When Samper didn't play, people thought that a coach is stupid.
When Semedo doesn't play, people again think that a coach is blind, even though Semedo has been weaker than we expected.

Each case is unique, I know.
But still. Apart from EV is stupid, there could be 100s of reasons why he don't play a kid currently.

Once again:
1. a coach sees a player everyday on training grounds and he knows way more about his abilities and whether a player is exposed in some areas
2. we, fans, know players only from some matches, from youtube compilations and majority of people are too emotionally attached to players, especially to younger ones "with a potential"

So, people will need to open the doors to other possibilities slowly:
1. maybe EV is just dumb
2. maybe Dembele sucks when you watch him everyday on training grounds
3. maybe he has mental issues or unprofessional behavior, or low IQ
4. maybe he was indeed a panic buy and EV doesn't see him in his plans
5. maybe Dembele is just injured and not ready to play
6. maybe Dembele will explode and turn into a next Messi in the next 2 Months

More or less, everything is possible. Not only the best case scenario.

Or maybe Valverde was just telling the truth when he said he didn't want to play Dembele against Chelsea since he was injured for 8 months and has barely played this year. Why would he risk with him in such important game when he clearly ins't ready to perform on such high level + he never got the chance to integrate him in our team since he was injured 24/7. It's simple as that.

 

[MessiCam]

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] Jibber Jabber Jibber Jabber

How does he make the final squad list with all those issues then? Surely he should sit in the bleachers if he is that fucked.

You people are applying some serious mental gymnastics to justify some of Valverde's tactical decisions.

 

[Jägermeister]

Both Coutinho and Dembele are panic buys to some extent.
I know, we wanted them both even before Neymar's departure but who knows whether we would ever actually bid on them if we haven't lost Neymar.

My point is: we can't be 100% sure that buying Dembele was a 100% calm and tactical decision by the board, a president and a coach.
We needed someone to calm down fans and we gambled and hoped for the best.

So were they panic buys or did we want them before as well? That is kind of contradictory.

It would make sense that as soon as Neymar got in contact with Paris, our board thought about options in the event that he actually left and Dembele was the best option. He is young, can play on both wings and has proven himself in Dortmund. Furthermore imo we also definitely needed a Neymar replacement because with our team as it played yesterday, we are seriously lacking offensive "firepower", like somebody who can take on players 1o1 or make runs to open up the defense.
Coutinho is also a logical buy since Iniesta really needs someone to give him breaks.
Of course both players have big names and calmed the fans, but that is because they both are of incredible quality.

 

[Raketa10]

Dembele needs to start performing against teams like Getafe, Girona or Las Palmas before you put trust in him against Chelsea or ATM. Until he proves he is 100% ready Valverde decision is absolutely understandable.

Coutinho panic buy? Come on...seriously?!

 

[Ousmane Dembélé]

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] Jibber Jabber Jibber Jabber

How does he make the final squad list with all those issues then? Surely he should sit in the bleachers if he is that fucked.

You people are applying some serious mental gymnastics to justify some of Valverde's tactical decisions.

It's truly amazing how some people blindly defend the status quo even when it's not working, which it clearly isn't. I had no problem with the 4-4-2 in December or January when Dembele was injured, we didn't have Coutinho and were still able to score with it and play relatively well, or at least well enough. Now that the system is falling apart I want a change which is very feasible with the players currently fit and in the squad.

What I find even more bizarre is that after so vehemently defending Valverde's workhorse 4-4-2 for the past few months BBZ has turned and done a 180 on a dime and is talking about how we're so slow, predictable and overly reliant on Messi. But he was advocating for this very system for the longest time and would argue against anyone that would make any of the points he's now making himself. He went from loving the 4-4-2 to absolutely hating the way we play after just one match.

 

[Raketa10]

It's truly amazing how some people blindly defend the status quo even when it's not working, which it clearly isn't. I had no problem with the 4-4-2 in December or January when Dembele was injured, we didn't have Coutinho and were still able to score with it and play relatively well, or at least well enough. Now that the system is falling apart I want a change which is very feasible with the players currently fit and in the squad.

What I find even more bizarre is that after so vehemently defending Valverde's workhorse 4-4-2 for the past few months BBZ has turned and done a 180 on a dime and is talking about how we're so slow, predictable and overly reliant on Messi. But he was advocating for this very system for the longest time and would argue against anyone that would make any of the points he's now making himself. He went from loving the 4-4-2 to absolutely hating the way we play after just one match.

I get your point but bare in mind we still don't have Coutinho in CL and Dembele is still far from required level since he was long time injured. I bet this is the reason Valverde sticks with this formation apart from the fact that Suarez can't play as LW and Messi doesn't want to play RW.