11 - Ousmane Dembélé - V1

[Total-Football]

Call me a hater or a troll whatever the fucks yall want .. This is not good enough, the goal -which was indeed decisive and i'm glad- was the difference between an ok performance and an average performance .. And those words (average, ok) sound bad to me.

If the whole idea of 4-3-3, as cruyff conceived it, was to make the two wingers some sort of transitional midfielders to maintain possession, then Demele sure did nothing to materialize this whole ideology. He looses the ball way, way wayyyyyyyyyyy too much for my taste i'm sorry. At one point you can see that he relays this nervousness to the teammates. Lost many balls today and did odd risky dribbles totally uncalled for and missed them, and used some trickery many times also for no clear purposes.. The result is a 53% possession against a Conte chealsea which is embarassing.

Of course the score kind of camouflage this disasterous possession phase and the fact that they hit the post twice.

In defense he left Roberto with no real help with his weak positioning and soft interventions causing Roberto to get booked early.

Positives: a crucial goal,he tracks back and that came useful in that dangerous conter in second half, and also he's kinda improving

Negatives: Bad fit for the system barca knows best ?! not agressive enough ?! questionable decision making so far ?!

At this rate i don't mind him at all as a last 20 minutes weapon but i would never start him unless iniesta is out, then i would just go fuck it and play him because of our shitty midifield. When iniesta start we have all the creativity we need, with iniesta we just have to play Paulinho for consolidations, that's it.

 

[te amo barca]

Call me a hater or a troll whatever the fucks yall want .. This is not good enough, the goal -which was indeed decisive and i'm glad- was the difference between an ok performance and an average performance .. And those words (average, ok) sound bad to me.

If the whole idea of 4-3-3, as cruyff conceived it, was to make the two wingers some sort of transitional midfielders to maintain possession, then Demele sure did nothing to materialize this whole ideology. He looses the ball way, way wayyyyyyyyyyy too much for my taste i'm sorry. At one point you can see that he relays this nervousness to the teammates. Lost many balls today and did odd risky dribbles totally uncalled for and missed them, and used some trickery many times also for no clear purposes.. The result is a 53% possession against a Conte chealsea which is embarassing.

Of course the score kind of camouflage this disasterous possession phase and the fact that they hit the post twice.

In defense he left Roberto with no real help with his weak positioning and soft interventions causing Roberto to get booked early.

Positives: a crucial goal,he tracks back and that came useful in that dangerous conter in second half, and also he's kinda improving

Negatives: Bad fit for the system barca knows best ?! not agressive enough ?! questionable decision making so far ?!

At this rate i don't mind him at all as a last 20 minutes weapon but i would never start him unless iniesta is out, then i would just go fuck it and play him because of our shitty midifield. When iniesta start we have all the creativity we need, with iniesta we just have to play Paulinho for consolidations, that's it.

We played a 4-4-2 today.

 

[BarcaOG]

hell of a finish. and what a great setting to score his first goal, too. valverde's decision to start him was sound.

 

[Total-Football]

We played a 4-4-2 today.

positionally, maybe. But i don't think Dembele is a midfielder at all. He played like a right winger today. it is not a matter of position alone, it is profile also.

 

[montero19]

Some comments here just make you feel like throwing up. When other players lose the ball, these people do not count but with Dembele they have the stat. Are some people too dumb to realize that a player who often tries to create something will lose the ball many times? Even the legendary Messi was robbed of the ball a couple of times.

 

[Barca83]

Full credit for the goal but I didn't think his all around performance was all that impressive. It was almost like a first half of the season Paulinho performance where he scored but was fairly average in the general play.

Hopefully his overall play will kick on during the run of matches that he should get over the next few weeks

 

[GOAT_SUAREZ]

The goal should give him a confidence boost. He had a mediocre game imo. Took his goal well considering the stage, otherwise nothing great nothing terrible. We can't have expectations of him based on the price tag. He will definitely disappoint if we do. Right now he should try to get as many minutes and work on improving as much as possible to suit the team. He's very young and has had poor luck for the first half of the season so no point jumping on every error. To me it looks like the team,player and the manager are still figuring out the best way to gel. This kind of situation is better suited for pre-season and the first half of the season when you can experiment and play inconsequential games. Now we're nearing the end game so I doubt we'll see major improvement till next season.

why not? Dembele wasn't even expected to start in UCL matches this year and there he is vs Chelsea. He has only played a few games. Let him string together a few more until late April and he will be much improved. He already is right now compared to 2 weeks ago.

 

[Horatio]

He has the signs of a great player though. Even though he is not there yet he is slowly building his stats. How many minutes has he played now?

 

[BarcaMessi]

Scored and made a crucial tackle on Alonso that may have prevented a goal. Still, defense doesn't seem to be his strong suit. then again, Chelsea was pressing like crazy.

 

[GOAT_SUAREZ]

He has the signs of a great player though. Even though he is not there yet he is slowly building his stats. How many minutes has he played now?

547 minutes and 5 scorers. So basically he scores the same way he did last year at Dortmund and just a little worse than Sané. Small sample size but these stats will look a lot better when he gets it fully going.

 

[Horatio]

547 minutes and 5 scorers. So basically he scores the same way he did last year at Dortmund and just a little worse than Sané. Small sample size but these stats will look a lot better when he gets it fully going.

That's my point. If he can already contribute like that in his current form it looks promising. Don't want to jump the gun on him but at this point I'd rather remain optimistic.

 

[Trafalgar]

He was great in his FIRST big game

Great to see him start, great to see him scoring his first goal in basically his second big game here and surely awesome tackle. His defense was suspect but he showed more willingness today.
That said, if you take the goal from him he was worst player on pitch in the first half, and probable in 2nd if you take the tackle.
His passing was awful and still can't beat his man.
I have faith in the kid, but he still has long way to go and hope that this game is a step forward for him.



Yes, specially if he is your 3rd best attacker.




Ironically this video make me takes BBZ side of the argument, he actually lost his man and got him back.
I won't blame him for that since wingers has to track back but rarely have high defensive awareness so it is acceptable mistake considering his age.

Oh shieet

 

[MessiCam]

Call me a hater or a troll whatever the fucks yall want .. This is not good enough, the goal -which was indeed decisive and i'm glad- was the difference between an ok performance and an average performance .. And those words (average, ok) sound bad to me.

If the whole idea of 4-3-3, as cruyff conceived it, was to make the two wingers some sort of transitional midfielders to maintain possession, then Demele sure did nothing to materialize this whole ideology. He looses the ball way, way wayyyyyyyyyyy too much for my taste i'm sorry. At one point you can see that he relays this nervousness to the teammates. Lost many balls today and did odd risky dribbles totally uncalled for and missed them, and used some trickery many times also for no clear purposes.. The result is a 53% possession against a Conte chealsea which is embarassing.

You clearly have very little understanding of Cruyff's system. Cruyff's 4-3-3 doesn't make use of wingers as transitional midfielders to maintain possession. Cruyff's 4-3-3 as part of his total football philosophy was about numerical superiority and space. The wings were never meant to play in midfield but rather the full backs. The central forward was the one expected to drop into midfield like he did in his day and what Messi does now.

Anyway, what Valverde is playing now is so far removed from anything Cruyffian you'd be excused for thinking we're a Premier League team. How do you expect to dominate possession with only 2 central midfielders, one whom is a defensive midfielder and the other a workhorse, while the best midfielder (Iniesta) is playing wide on the left flank? Your gripes are with the manager and not with the players, dear sir.

Regarding the possession loss...

These are Dembélé's stats which led to turnovers;

3 Failed take-ons
5 Failed passes
1 Dispossession
1 Unsuccessful touch

So Dembélé was responsible for 10 turnovers...

Now these are Suárez stats which led to turnovers;

0 Failed take-ons
6 Failed passes
2 Dispossessions
2 Unsuccessful touches

So Suárez was responsible for 10 turnovers...

And here are Messi's;

3 Failed take-ons
7 Failed passes
4 Dispossessions
2 Unsuccessful touches

Messi responsible for 16 turnovers...

So in conclusion he was no worse in terms of possession loss than the other forwards.

Of course the score kind of camouflage this disasterous possession phase and the fact that they hit the post twice.

This is not a Dembélé problem but rather a managerial one. One that is intent on playing players out of position to appease Suárez.

In defense he left Roberto with no real help with his weak positioning and soft interventions causing Roberto to get booked early.

No. Roberto put on a shit show. Had it not been for Dembélé covering for his ass the result could have gone the other way. The kid put in a shift...

Positives: a crucial goal,he tracks back and that came useful in that dangerous conter in second half, and also he's kinda improving

Agreed

Negatives: Bad fit for the system barca knows best ?! not agressive enough ?! questionable decision making so far ?!

He is not a bad fit for Barça's system. He is bad fit for Valverde's system... A system that plays him in midfield hugging the touch line. He should be further up playing in the half space where he can run and dribble at the opposition.

At this rate i don't mind him at all as a last 20 minutes weapon but i would never start him unless iniesta is out, then i would just go fuck it and play him because of our shitty midifield. When iniesta start we have all the creativity we need, with iniesta we just have to play Paulinho for consolidations, that's it.

Iniesta's creativity and control is going for a ball of shit under Valverde because he is playing wide with only Alba as an outlet.

Iniesta made only 4 passes to Busquets, 3 to Suárez, only 2 to Messi and Rakitic but a whopping 21 to Alba. What the fuck? And then you want to talk about possession phases and all it encumbers...

Try again man.

 

[RMU ReBorn]

When I think about it no way Neymar would have scored this, I don't think I even remember him scoring this type of goal

You know what Shitmer would have done ? . He would have ran around defenders trying to dribble and will shoot in to moon like he did against Villareal in 2015-16 season when we ended up with a 2-2 draw after leading 2-0

he did good and all but god damn messi was on fire with that assist
also great job by suarez for providing the space

Difference between Messi getting stagnated in Stamford bridge and him getting lot's of spaces in second leg was Dembele's presence . People will bitch over lost balls ,but won't give him credit for that . Even in Juve match Messi was a different beast all together with Dembouz's presence

 

[Barcaman]

Regarding the possession loss...

These are Dembélé's stats which led to turnovers;

3 Failed take-ons
5 Failed passes
1 Dispossession
1 Unsuccessful touch

So Dembélé was responsible for 10 turnovers...

...

And here are Messi's;

3 Failed take-ons
7 Failed passes
4 Dispossessions
2 Unsuccessful touches

Messi responsible for 16 turnovers...

So in conclusion he was no worse in terms of possession loss than the other forwards.

You just killed yourself with comparing Messi with Dembele. Just like that guy (Zincubus) who said so what Gomes hoofed the ball, Messi made mistakes too!