11 - Ousmane Dembélé - V1

Apparently it's a more servere strain according to sources. 4 weeks recovery time.

Leo_Messi said:

I have been saying that for a long time now. Dembélé reminds me of a young Messi when he first arrived at the scene without comparing those two's talents obviously. You could see the raw talent and genius of Dembélé from miles away at Rennes but much like Messi initially it took him a while to reach consistency notwithstanding the injury problems that both of them suffered from and which slowed them down a bit initially. Mbappé to me is much more similar to C. Ronaldo. A brutal physique for his age, intelligent runs behind the defense and extreme pace (quicker than C. Ronaldo ever was) and obviously he picked up his goalscoring much sooner than C. Ronaldo did. Both of them seem to be very professional footballers and workaholics. However as good as Mbappé is I believe that Dembélé's talent is greater and that his ceiling is higher. Dembélé is more prone to exhibiting the extraordinary on the pitch. Not to mention his unique ability of being ambidextrous and his technical ability, in particular dribbling, being vastly superior. He also has a better eye for his teammates.

If he undergoes the same development that Messi did in terms of goalscoring, which cannot be totally ruled out, he will become the superior player. Without a doubt.

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Apart from the obvious, there is one significant difference between the young Leo & Dembele. Ousmane will be 22 in less than 4 months, by this age Messi had won everything there was to win in club football on both an individual and team level. Most important difference, for me, was that young Leo and here I am speaking about 16-18 year old Messi was like a pitbull on the pitch, relentless in attack. Dembele, is so smooth & seemingly effortless that he appears to be in training rather than a competitive match.

What I saw last night from Dembele was a player with the clear potential to lead a team in a manner like Neymar could and Messi has most of his career - the difference, however, is will he be the protagonist and dictate matches or will he be content to play the ancillary weapon. The answer to that question I believe will define his career

Losing the ball needlessly at times still but apart from that he was excellent. Dembele is proof you don't need close control to be one of the best dribblers in the game. Long strides or not, he will twist you inside out again and again.

Edit: his vision is surprising me also, it's getting better and better.

Impressive game from him, such a shame he got injured.

11 successful dribbles in under an hour, highest in Primera Liga match this season thus far - imagine if he played 90

YodaMaster said:

Ok guys, I know here we're at a Barça forum. I don't want to look disrespectful or delusional. Don't get it wrong, Mbappé is a very special talent. But I think he's a bit overrated, especially in France. Dude is constantly being compared to Messi and Pelé.
One important thing: Dembélé was considered the more promising prospect between the two by a considerable number of french people. But it all changed since the World Cup.

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I get what you mean about each player's ceiling, but saying that the perception "changed since the world cup" is wrong. Mbappe is a year and a half younger than Dembele. He scored his first goal in Ligue 1 just after turning 17. Scored his first hat trick in Ligue 1 at 18. His first goal in C1 at the same age. He basically erased City from UCL all by himself, and then went on to be the youngest player ever to score in a UCL semi final. That was a year BEFORE the world cup. He was already seen as the next big thing. People thought that the price paid by Barca for Dembele was crazy. Whereas two teams (PSG and Real) were willing to pay 180 millions to Monaco for Mbappe, without thinking it was completely insane.

Look, I've been very vocal about my love for Dembele here. I mentioned that he was one of the very few players that made me go "holy fuck that kid is going to be huge" after just a few minutes (his first game was against my team, Bordeaux). But even if Dembele is doing great these days, he's still behind Mbappe. He's probably the better dribbler of the two (and that's clearly what most people meant when they say he's "more talented"). But Mbappe, along with his supernatural pace, is also a great finisher AND he's also very good on the ball. People saying he's a pace merchant need to watch again his insane back heel pass for Giroud against Belgium. He does that kind of things pretty consistently. That doesn't mean that Dembele won't go higher than Mbappe, but Kylian is clearly not done improving either.
I do like Dembele a bit more, personality wise though. That kind of "lazy goofball with an insane talent" is very enjoyable (more than the "cyborg created to be a Ballon d'Or" that is Mbappe). Might also be his biggest limitation though, but we'll see.

They remind me of Messi vs. CR
Dembele as a creative, unpredictable,havoc producing dribble savant with introverted personality vs. physical mutant, ruthless goal scoring, extroverted Mbappe.

I am the real & original dembele is the next fan on here, but people on here as per always swing from 1 extreme to another.

He isn't going to be better than mbappe, maybe juts maybe they end up on equals but mbappe is the bigger talent, the rarer talent.

But dembele wow.

Where is Maxim4?

Official: Dembele out for 15 days.

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Not as serious as first feared but still out of both legs of QFs with Sevilla/CDR

As long as he is ready to go for Lyon it's fine. Don't give a single fuck about the Cdr

Player development is not linear. Dembele might be better than Mbappe when he's 26 and the latter 24/25, or he might not be far off.

He should remain focused and keep working hard. He's still very young and not everyone can be outstanding at a very young age like Messi or Mbappe. Cristiano reached that kind of level when he was 23/24 in 2008 with Man Utd. Before that he was scoring some goals, but was still not too consistent and was more of a showman than it yielding results on the field.

Lets just be happy that he is becoming essential for our play and showing excellent qualities and drop comparisons to Pele, Messi, Maradona, Mbappe or whoever else.

Also, worth pointing out he seem much better on the RW.