Ousmane Dembélé

[serghei]

We obviously can't cherrypick what dribbling is and what isn't based on our personal preferences. Dembele is limited in variety but gets the job done pretty consistently in certain situations.

He's great as long as he isn't double marked and is left with a single opponent in conditions of space. In this particular case, he bursts with pace and clears himself for the cross. Like a superior version of Adama Traore with some tricks, skills, and feints that Adama lacks. Even then Dembele rarely cuts inside and shoots. Or gets something of that impact. A cross is basically the best he can achieve. That's why he has like 1 goal in the league this season from 20 games or so.

For everything else, Salah is better by a distance. It's a joke comparison to say Dembele is better dribbler than Salah. Maybe only if you talk about strictly 10% of dribbling-type scenarios.

Take the goal Salah scored vs City this season. Dembele would do the first dribble in this case, and completely fuck up the 2nd, let alone make the second dribble in so little space and even have the proper technique and touch to place a shot. Dembele never ever gets to score a goal from being surrounded by 5 players against a tier 1 opponent. Somewhere along the way he makes a heavy/clumsy touch that ruins his action.

 

[te amo barca]

What constitutes a troll for you? I give my heart to these posts on this forum! My deep knowledge about the game, my sense of taste, my analytical mind, I give it away for free! And all you do is call me a troll! How rude!

You are getting too obvious with this bit, stop please. There was nuance to your earlier trolling, bar your Puigism

 

[vegitot]

Salah has much better technique and that's why he can do so well in tight space. But overall i think Dembele is better at dribbling though he is terrible in tight space.

Speed is 90% of Dembele's dribbling ability. A faster player doesn't mean a better dribbler. Iniesta/Zidane was much slower but thousand times better dribbler.

Now it seems many just look at how many dribbles a player complete rather than watch how they control the ball.

 

[vegitot]

It's fairly simple what's going on here.
Bobo and Laplacian have always been Dembele haters,
they are in denial since he exploded under Xavi,

and they have turned into sore losers lately
because their common line of attack (that xStats are 'useless' - tells you all about their understanding of the sport BTW - we want 'real' stats in goals and assists)
went so emphatically to the trash-bin after he became LL top assister

So now they - egregiously - are devising other crap to barricade behind (like that he doesn't dribble with close control and stepover LMAOL or that he doesn't have the passing % rate of a midfielder)

Let them sink into their hate and misery

Dembele is the player that benefits most from Xavi's spamming cross tactic. Of course he's done well but let's not forget that if Xavi actually thinks about midfield, his stats would look worse.

 

[serghei]

Salah has much better technique and that's why he can do so well in tight space. But overall i think Dembele is better at dribbling though he is terrible in tight space.

Speed is 90% of Dembele's dribbling ability. A faster player doesn't mean a better dribbler. Iniesta/Zidane was much slower but thousand times better dribbler.

Pretty much but you mix up the terms IMO. Dribbling at the highest level is mostly about technique. Otherwise, Aaron Lennon would've been a world-beater simply because he was fast as hell.

Dembele would've been a bit like Robben, but in comparison with Robben's left foot, Dembele's shot is a complete joke. Robben is basically the prototype of pacy winger who had a whipping left foot so he could cut inside and slam it in. If Dembele cuts inside on his left in speed 9 times of of 10 he skies it way over.

He's just a fast player and not much else. 6/10 dribbler for general purposes, unless you are satisfied with reducing your winger to a fullback role. Which is what we're doing. Alba has more goals and more assists than Dembele in the league.

 

[vegitot]

Pretty much but you mix up the terms IMO. Dribbling at the highest level is mostly about technique. Otherwise, Aaron Lennon would've been a world-beater simply because he was fast as hell.

Dembele would've been a bit like Robben, but in comparison with Robben's left foot, Dembele's shot is a complete joke.

True. But Dembele's technique is not even close to half of Robben.

 

[serghei]

True. But Dembele's technique is not even close to half of Robben.

That's the issue basically. He can get past a man, but Robben had a world-class follow-up while Dembele turns into Dumbele in every other scenario that doesn't involve a cross in the box.

He's basically more Adama Traore than Robben.

 

[OVI9323]

He's great as long as he isn't double marked and is left with a single opponent in conditions of space. In this particular case, he bursts with pace and clears himself for the cross. Like a superior version of Adama Traore with some tricks, skills, and feints that Adama lacks. Even then Dembele rarely cuts inside and shoots. Or gets something of that impact. A cross is basically the best he can achieve. That's why he has like 1 goal in the league this season from 20 games or so.

For everything else, Salah is better by a distance. It's a joke comparison to say Dembele is better dribbler than Salah. Maybe only if you talk about strictly 10% of dribbling-type scenarios.

Take the goal Salah scored vs City this season. Dembele would do the first dribble in this case, and completely fuck up the 2nd, let alone make the second dribble in so little space and even have the proper technique and touch to place a shot. Dembele never ever gets to score a goal from being surrounded by 5 players against a tier 1 opponent. Somewhere along the way he makes a heavy/clumsy touch that ruins his action.

In this situation, if it was Dembele there is 99% that he would either
A : Shoot in the sky
B : Shoot on an defenser and then there's a counter attack
C : Attempt a pass but reach a defense and then there's a counter attack

Dembele is an high quality dribbler but when we speak about dribble that put you in good position to score goal, he's not the most effecient. And let's add this with his shooting tactic which is 99% power and 1% of "even more power" and we have this dire result of 2 goals in one years.

 

[serghei]

In this situation, if it was Dembele there is 99% that he would either
A : Shoot in the sky
B : Shoot on an defenser and then there's a counter attack
C : Attempt a pass but reach a defense and then there's a counter attack

Dembele is an high quality dribbler but when we speak about dribble that put you in good position to score goal, he's not the most effecient. And let's add this with his shooting tactic which is 99% power and 1% of "even more power" and we have this dire result of 2 goals in one years.

Dembele is not a high-quality dribbler. He's a down-the-line speedster that gets past one, very rarely two, defenders and gets enough room to place a cross. I admit, he does this effectively against smaller sides. But that's it. The best players don't do that, because they can do stuff that is a lot harder and more effective.

Dembele almost never gets inside, because we have seen what he can do once he does. Nothing of note. He doesn't attack the box because he's abysmal at heading the ball (lol, did he ever score a header for us?), abysmal in small spaces, and his attacking the box instincts are disastrous.

The better teams will not have their wingers reduced to a down-the-line and cross merchant. Imagine if winger Rodrygo would have done that instead of getting in the box vs City. Benzema would be isolated among 3-4 City players, Madrid never get another remontada, City play another CL final.

Instead, you have Rodrygo attacking the box and scoring two goals in 2 mins, and fullbacks deliverping good crosses as it's supposed to be. Carvajal for example. Or Fede Valverde.

Dembele is the beef hamburger of wingers. Good in his own limited, fast-food way. Salah is a fillet mignon steak at a Michelin star restaurant.

 

[feggydinho]

Salah has much better technique and that's why he can do so well in tight space. But overall i think Dembele is better at dribbling though he is terrible in tight space.

Speed is 90% of Dembele's dribbling ability. A faster player doesn't mean a better dribbler. Iniesta/Zidane was much slower but thousand times better dribbler.

Now it seems many just look at how many dribbles a player complete rather than watch how they control the ball.

Dembele nutmegs, feints and drops players on the ground anyhow while going on runs, and that's not all about speed else players like Daniel james, inaki Williams, Kyle walker etc would've been mad dribblers too, so its not just pace even though having pace gives an advantage.

 

[Laplacian]

Salah has much better technique and that's why he can do so well in tight space. But overall i think Dembele is better at dribbling though he is terrible in tight space.

Speed is 90% of Dembele's dribbling ability. A faster player doesn't mean a better dribbler. Iniesta/Zidane was much slower but thousand times better dribbler.

Now it seems many just look at how many dribbles a player complete rather than watch how they control the ball.

How can you say that a player completely ineffective in tight spaces is better at dribbling than a player that excels in it? Well okay, you can't win all battles. At least you understand what Dembele does isn't actual dribbling, it's just him outpacing players. Give him Zidane's pace or Iniesta's pace an he's completely ineffective. To me that's just a sprinter.

He's great as long as he isn't double marked and is left with a single opponent in conditions of space. In this particular case, he bursts with pace and clears himself for the cross. Like a superior version of Adama Traore with some tricks, skills, and feints that Adama lacks. Even then Dembele rarely cuts inside and shoots. Or gets something of that impact. A cross is basically the best he can achieve. That's why he has like 1 goal in the league this season from 20 games or so.

For everything else, Salah is better by a distance. It's a joke comparison to say Dembele is better dribbler than Salah. Maybe only if you talk about strictly 10% of dribbling-type scenarios.

Take the goal Salah scored vs City this season. Dembele would do the first dribble in this case, and completely fuck up the 2nd, let alone make the second dribble in so little space and even have the proper technique and touch to place a shot. Dembele never ever gets to score a goal from being surrounded by 5 players against a tier 1 opponent. Somewhere along the way he makes a heavy/clumsy touch that ruins his action.

My man. You understand. It's just driving me insane that these people are rating Dembele higher than Salah in dribbling because of numbers. Notice how they'll write paragraphs, paragraphs, and paragraphs...but they'll never send you a clip of Dembele exhibiting the quality in the gif you published above.

 

[Laplacian]

Dembele is not a high-quality dribbler. He's a down-the-line speedster that gets past one, very rarely two, defenders and gets enough room to place a cross. I admit, he does this effectively against smaller sides. But that's it. The best players don't do that, because they can do stuff that is a lot harder and more effective.

Dembele almost never gets inside, because we have seen what he can do once he does. Nothing of note.

The better teams will not have their wingers do that. Imagine if winger Rodrygo would have done that instead of getting in the box vs City. Benzema would be isolated among 3-4 City players, Madrid never get another remondata, City play another CL final.

Instead, you have Rodrygo attacking the box and scoring two goals in 2 mins, and lesser players delivering good crosses as it's supposed to be. Carvajal for example.

Dembele is the beef hamburger of wingers. Good in his own limited, fast-food way. Salah is a fillet mignon steak at a Michelin star restaurant.

Exactly! The reason why Salah isn't kicking it and running down the sidelines and pumping up "dribbles past" numbers in quantity each match is because he's busy doing all the things you listed, and attempting moves that are far harder than Dembele's bread and butter. You'll have 3 videos of Salah scoring the type of goals we cited earlier on this thread THIS season alone, whereas with Dembele you won't even find one clip of him confidently skipping past players in the box like Salah does, let alone scoring a goal.

I wouldn't even call it Adama Traore style, because Adama at least has technique he's just stupid. He's more akin to the Walcotts and Aaron Lennons of the football world, and it baffles me that Barcelona fans are actually rating this buffoon.

In this situation, if it was Dembele there is 99% that he would either
A : Shoot in the sky
B : Shoot on an defenser and then there's a counter attack
C : Attempt a pass but reach a defense and then there's a counter attack

Dembele is an high quality dribbler but when we speak about dribble that put you in good position to score goal, he's not the most effecient. And let's add this with his shooting tactic which is 99% power and 1% of "even more power" and we have this dire result of 2 goals in one years.

Dembele wouldn't be able to complete the 3rd move. Notice how Salah delays his move to bait 3 defenders into closing him down so that the space to his right will open up. Dembele would never do that because Dembele mostly functions on immediate instinct, not intelligence. Most likely after the 2nd move he'd immediately shoot or cross and have it promptly blocked by the crowded box.

 

[Bobo32]

You are getting too obvious with this bit, stop please. There was nuance to your earlier trolling, bar your Puigism

Get on my wavelength, bro. Everything I write is true too.

 

[feggydinho]

He's great as long as he isn't double marked and is left with a single opponent in conditions of space. In this particular case, he bursts with pace and clears himself for the cross. Like a superior version of Adama Traore with some tricks, skills, and feints that Adama lacks. Even then Dembele rarely cuts inside and shoots. Or gets something of that impact. A cross is basically the best he can achieve. That's why he has like 1 goal in the league this season from 20 games or so.

For everything else, Salah is better by a distance. It's a joke comparison to say Dembele is better dribbler than Salah. Maybe only if you talk about strictly 10% of dribbling-type scenarios.

Take the goal Salah scored vs City this season. Dembele would do the first dribble in this case, and completely fuck up the 2nd, let alone make the second dribble in so little space and even have the proper technique and touch to place a shot. Dembele never ever gets to score a goal from being surrounded by 5 players against a tier 1 opponent. Somewhere along the way he makes a heavy/clumsy touch that ruins his action.

You won't really see this from dembele cause his first instinct is to pass, so in dembele's case, you'll Normally see Auba and ferran waiting in the box and dembele making the pass after dribbling to create space, now you'll see plenty of actions like this from Chukweze of Villarreal (he even did it against Madrid) cause he normally goes for the kill in the box. Different profile of players

 

[Laplacian]

You won't really see this from dembele cause his first instinct is to pass, so in dembele's case, you'll Normally see Auba and ferran waiting in the box and dembele making the pass after dribbling to create space, now you'll see plenty of actions like this from Chukweze of Villarreal (he even did it against Madrid) cause he normally goes for the kill in the box. Different profile of players

HAHAHA, he doesn't dribble like that because his first instinct is to pass. How about he can't dribble like that because he CAN'T?

What's your excuse for non-goal scorers/primarily creators like Pedri, Xavi, Modric, and Iniesta being able to do what Salah does; their first instinct is to pass and yet they confidently dribble inside the box like Salah does. What's the excuse there? Seriously the excuses you guys make (it's Xavi's fault, he's just a generous player!) for this worthless shite that has only contributed to a Supercopa honestly baffles me.

Like I'll concede that Dembele is a very effective dribbler however limited his style of playing is, but to call him better than Salah? Fucking please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtnT9Xl2iBg

Pure fucking technique. It actually triggers me that anyone would claim he's the inferior dribbler.