11 - Ousmane Dembélé - V1

[5ergio_Busquets]

Umtiti was being dragged all over the place v Sevilla as Alba was caught up pitch all the time and Dembele does not have to defend more or protect Roberto.

Alba was caught up field a few times because he is much more involved in the attack this season but he has the speed to recover when caught out of position, Roberto on the other side doesn't need to be caught out of position because he get's beaten in 1 v 1 by any average player. That's why almost all of Sevilla's attacks came through the open Roberto street.

 

[5ergio_Busquets]

He could do no task as we were struggling at the back and in the midfield. He helped none of it.
Coutnho might be lucky to have Alba, but what's the point? Roberto was caught too many times in 2 v 1 situations.

He sticked to his role and didn't pay attention to what's happening on the pitch. That's a lazy game for me.

Well, there is a manager that should have told him to track back more and I doubt he did that and Dembele just ignored him.

 

[JamDav1982]

Alba was caught up field a few times because he is much more involved in the attack this season but he has the speed to recover when caught out of position, Roberto on the other side doesn't need to be caught out of position because he get's beaten in 1 v 1 by any average player. That's why almost all of Sevilla's attacks came through the open Roberto street.

Alba doesnt have the speed to recover when that far up park and Umtiti was all over the place trying to cover.

Roberto made more tackles/Inerceptions than Alba although both were shite but dont agree Sevilla went down Barcas right more.

 

[JamDav1982]

Well, there is a manager that should have told him to track back more and I doubt he did that and Dembele just ignored him.

Trying to blame the manager for Dembele not tracking back more?

There is videos of the other players and manager clearly not happy with Dembele during that game so you think he was just ignoring them?

 

[Joan]

Well, there is a manager that should have told him to track back more and I doubt he did that and Dembele just ignored him.

Velverde can act too attacking.

 

[Messi983]

It's not about the quality of his game, it's about attitude.

If we are only talking about Sevilla then we can say most players had attitude problems in that game as they seemed unmotivated and unfocused until we were 2-0 down and Messi came on.

I think it's unfair to single out players when whole team minds are not in the game but this is somewhat expected when you have 11 points advantage at the top of the table, coming off international break and with important CL game upcoming in 4 days. Combine all of that with playing at one of the toughest stadium not only in La Liga but in the world and you get what we did.

When a team as a group is motivated and playing closer to their potential like against Chelsea then I didn't see Dembele having attitude problems. Yes, he lacks tactical discipline/awareness in defense but that's expected from a young player and I'm sure EV is focusing on improving that aspect of his game. So I don't see attitude problems with Dembele on the field and I absolutely don't know anything about his personal life to know if some (bad) things about him that were written in last months in the media are true and I don't want to speculate on them without knowing more facts. But if there are really some concerns about his off the field attitude then I hope Dembele (with help of the club) will adress those issues seriously if he didn't already.

 

[5ergio_Busquets]

Alba doesnt have the speed to recover when that far up park and Umtiti was all over the place trying to cover.

Roberto made more tackles/Inerceptions than Alba although both were shite but dont agree Sevilla went down Barcas right more.

It's normal that Alba who goes forward a lot to be caught up field in counter attacks. Roberto didn't go forward and still his side was the weaker defensive side and it looked so easy for Sevilla to come through and create chances from his side. What was Roberto doing in the first Sevilla goal? The Sevilla player had all the time and space in the world to control the ball then wait and pick out at team mate with a simple slow pass like he was in a training session or something. Why didn't Roberto try to go closer to the player and put pressure on him? Because he knows if he tries that the player will easily dribble past him into the penalty area.

 

[JamDav1982]

It's normal that Alba who goes forward a lot to be caught up field in counter attacks. Roberto didn't go forward and still his side was the weaker defensive side and it looked so easy for Sevilla to come through and create chances from his side. What was Roberto doing in the first Sevilla goal? The Sevilla player had all the time and space in the world to control the ball then wait and pick out at team mate with a simple slow pass like he was in a training session or something. Why didn't Roberto try to go closer to the player and put pressure on him? Because he knows if he tries that the player will easily dribble past him into the penalty area.

Of course Alba should go up but the team was being exposed on that side.

Have just rewatched the highlights and as sad as it is... counted what side Sevilla exposed more and it was the left.

Roberto was shite for their first goal but also the Sevilla left back was with the LW and Dembele was nowhere to be seen tracking back.

Sevilla were exposing the oppsite side of park more and barely any chances came form Roberto being dribbled but at least 3/4 came from far too much space on left hand side and Umtiti not being able to cover.

 

[5ergio_Busquets]

Of course Alba should go up but the team was being exposed on that side.

Have just rewatched the highlights and as sad as it is... counted what side Sevilla exposed more and it was the left.

Roberto was shite for their first goal but also the Sevilla left back was with the LW and Dembele was nowhere to be seen tracking back.

Sevilla were exposing the oppsite side of park more and barely any chances came form Roberto being dribbled but at least 3/4 came from far too much space on left hand side and Umtiti not being able to cover.

As I said Roberto because of his previous experiences in 1 v 1 situations avoids going close to the attackers and instead keeps backing off with his hand's behind his back until he reaches the goal line. He didn't get dribbled past, because he simply runs away from the players and waits for Pique or another player to make the tackle or the interception. Compare Roberto with Semedo in 1 v 1 situations and you can see the massive difference.

 

[JamDav1982]

As I said Roberto because of his previous experiences in 1 v 1 situations avoids going close to the attackers and instead keeps backing off with his hand's behind his back until he reaches the goal line. He didn't get dribbled past, because he simply runs away from the players and waits for Pique or another player to make the tackle or the interception. Compare Roberto with Semedo in 1 v 1 situations and you can see the massive difference.

No he was just positioned poorly and didnt not expect there to be that pass on it was nothing to do with scared of being dribbled.

The error of Roberto was predicting he would go on outside not being scared of it.

Roberto actually made the most tackles and interceptions in that match but he like all of them was poor.

As I said virtually none of the attacks came from them targeting Roberto with running at him but 3/4 of came from exposing the left hand side. Go watch the highlights.

 

[Joan]

If we are only talking about Sevilla then we can say most players had attitude problems in that game as they seemed unmotivated and unfocused until we were 2-0 down and Messi came on.

I think it's unfair to single out players when whole team minds are not in the game but this is somewhat expected when you have 11 points advantage at the top of the table, coming off international break and with important CL game upcoming in 4 days. Combine all of that with playing at one of the toughest stadium not only in La Liga but in the world and you get what we did.

When a team as a group is motivated and playing closer to their potential like against Chelsea then I didn't see Dembele having attitude problems. Yes, he lacks tactical discipline/awareness in defense but that's expected from a young player and I'm sure EV is focusing on improving that aspect of his game. So I don't see attitude problems with Dembele on the field and I absolutely don't know anything about his personal life to know if some (bad) things about him that were written in last months in the media are true and I don't want to speculate on them without knowing more facts. But if there are really some concerns about his off the field attitude then I hope Dembele (with help of the club) will adress those issues seriously if he didn't already.

I mostly agree with you. It's not fair to point to a single player when the whole team plays bad. But I was stating that I don't have problems with his poor matches (normal for a player of his age) but rather lazy ones.

Not talking about his off field life, just that one match.

 

[Cruyff-Total Football]

No he was just positioned poorly and didnt not expect there to be that pass on it was nothing to do with scared of being dribbled.

The error of Roberto was predicting he would go on outside not being scared of it.

Roberto actually made the most tackles and interceptions in that match but he like all of them was poor.

As I said virtually none of the attacks came from them targeting Roberto with running at him but 3/4 of came from exposing the left hand side. Go watch the highlights.

Interception is one aspect of Roberto's game where he's massively underrated.

Most of the attacks come from left side because Umtiti is not an intelligent game reader to cover two positions. That's why Pique is a better defender.

 

[JamDav1982]

Interception is one aspect of Roberto's game where he's massively underrated.

Most of the attacks come from left side because Umtiti is not an intelligent game reader to cover two positions. That's why Pique is a better defender.

Umtiti was struggling but so was Pique and Alba does leave Umtiti more exposed as he is expected to take more width on that side.

Pique was awful in that game just was not exposed as often as Umtiti was.

 

[Joan]

Compare Roberto with Semedo in 1 v 1 situations and you can see the massive difference.

If you are still talking about their 1st goal, it wasn't 1 v 1 but 1 v 2 situation.

Roberto might have done better but it's extremely hard to close such situations with a lot of space not covered.

 

[5ergio_Busquets]

No he was just positioned poorly and didnt not expect there to be that pass on it was nothing to do with scared of being dribbled.

The error of Roberto was predicting he would go on outside not being scared of it.

Roberto actually made the most tackles and interceptions in that match but he like all of them was poor.

As I said virtually none of the attacks came from them targeting Roberto with running at him but 3/4 of came from exposing the left hand side. Go watch the highlights.

It's not only in that situation Roberto did this. Everytime he is in 1v1 he stays too far away giving the player too much time, space and options and just keeps backing off and backing off.