I just regret Dembele going tbh. Ok, people will post his goal stats in France and say hahaha, but the fact is he fit extremely well with the team and his qualities complimented the other players very well. I am sure that if Dembele stayed for another season Lewa would have done much better.
Regardless of his issues with scoring that type of player who can dribble anyone on the wing, so fast and both footed, is exactly the type of winger we're looking for now and we already had it.
It's hard to know, it may be possible that nothing could be done and he would always leave, but I'm sure I also read part of the reason he left was friction with the board and wanting a higher salary.
Side note, thing that is most bizarre is he hasn't been injured once since April 2023. Could be just really bad luck that he found fitness after leaving or something with the medical team here.
To make it more specific:
since Koeman 'gave him back his health' as himself said in an interview, that is since the start of 20/21 season,
he had only 2 injuries:
- 1 non-muscular injury with France at Euros in summer 2021
- the muscular injury against Girona that forced him out for 2 crucial months in 22/23, which was all Xavi's fault for overplaying him (even against the like of Cueta) at the time
It surely is the training regime before Koeman (no physical preparation at all), and it might also be our medical team.
But it might also be the good mamangement of his minutes. If you look how Enrique managed him this past season, he wasn't playing more than 90-120 min every week, whereas with Xavi he was playing 180 min every week
