Watched the match by chance last night. Now, seeing the highlights you could tell it was a fine performance, and in some sense it certainly was, but I can't help feeling he's the odd one out in the team. A lot of attacks went through his side and most of the time you could see Dembele trying to defend. Fun scenes. Man literally hates it. Yes, he tracks back, follows his man but with zero intensity. It's practically useless. No use of his pressing. Carried the ball well, though.
I also watched the game yesterday because of him.
When Dembele plays for Barca, he has a strange movement, for my taste, both on the ball and off the ball.
But then, since we have a complicated system, I thought that it could be the reason since he is new.
But he plays as equally as weird (or lost) even for France.
The thing with highlights is: you will see only moments when he gets the ball.
And when he gets the ball, he is usually good due to his individual skill.
But in times when he doesn't have the ball, he looks so strange.
In attack he often looks as if he doesn't understand what his teammates will do.
In defense, it looks as fake defending.
He is running and covering, and in theory, it looks like some sort of defending.
But in reality, it again looks as if he doesn't have a clue what to do, where to run, how to tackle etc.
The more I watch Dembele, the more is clear that he has huge individual technical potential.
But he seems to be lacking a lot in tactical sense, like on the ball and off the ball movement both in attack and defense, plus he doesn't know how to defend.
About his IQ and decisions, I still have doubts about his IQ.
Not only because of that interview...
He is still extremely raw.
Insane potential in some areas.
And in other areas he seems as he doesn't know to execute the simplest tactical duties.
He needs to improve his understanding with his teammates and his movements off and on the ball. He seems very predictable because of it.
