Ousmane Dembélé

Dembele just struggles with the simplest passes for some reason.
Here is a video from the first half:
4 bad passes and 2 times dispossessed.
Plus, a few times even when his pass came to a teammate, a lot of times those passes were on a verge of being bad and intercepted:

at 0:03, dispossessed as he was going for a tough dribble. He was close to beating his marker. I would applaud him for trying and encourage him to keep trying.
for majority of the barca players other than Messi, that would have been a back pass.

0:23 was hardly a simply pass. it was right off of a aggressive dribbling and take on attempt with 4 arsenal players trained on him and his pass. Again, a few Barca players beside Messi could
even attempt this. again, I would tell him to keep trying.

0:30 I guess one can blame him for not putting the exact amount of pace and spin needed. Again not a simple pass with the speed of Semedo/his marker, the distance needed to be covered, the amount o real estate left and amount of angle that was cut off by the Arsenal covering Dembele.

1:14, not sure if Messi would have been able to consistently put the exact amount of pace on that through pass.

1:46, Dembele put too much pace on that pass to Griezmann after an aggressive run. He could improve there. then again, only him, Semedo, Wague and maybe Alba even have the speed to make the
run.

1:56, lost possession on an aggressive dribble. refer to comments for 0:03.

2:06, partly due to Raktic being too slow and too old.

2:31, not a good dribble.

2:40, could have scored with better finishing.

why I did not see 4 bad SIMPLEST passes.

No other Barca player even came close to the number of take on's and dribbles attempted by Dembele. Not De Jong, not Griezmann.

I think he was the most creative Barca player by a long shot.

I'd prefer a player who has the abilities to take more risks to create more than the Barca players with 99.99% back/side pass success rate.
 

Givenchy

Senior Member
we signed a raw, high potential 20 year old in the hopes of replacing Neymar for a club record fee at the time. 2 years later, we have a raw 22 year old who other than a few games here and there, has shown barely any improvement in terms of his flaws, highly frustrating player.

had he stayed at Dortmund or joined Liverpool/Tottenham with a decent manager, we would be seeing a young player improving, not the finish product, yet on track to reach his potential but here, we get to watch another wasted year of development under this fraud of a manager

Pep would of turned this guy into a monster
 
I think his tiki tika is better compared to Dortmund. His dribbling might have regressed since Barca has alot more possession and plays alot more against buses.

I think his lack of defensive pressure is costing Barca alot more than his unsuccessful take on's, dribbles and creative/risky passes.
Kind of similar to the Messi dilemma. Thrive with his creativity, but have to suffer with his walking defense.

I think his dribbling, take on abilities and his speed will be more prominent and decisive when Barca's possession goes 50% or below.
 
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CatalinR10

Senior Member
this cat would have been a top 3 player in the world if he went to city or liverpool instead of joining Barca , and of course without his injuries.


As soon as a player , no matter how talented he is , signs his Barca contract , he signed his own DEATH as a football player.


As long as Valverde is here WC players should avoid the club like a plague.
 

Maxim4

New member
we signed a raw, high potential 20 year old in the hopes of replacing Neymar for a club record fee at the time. 2 years later, we have a raw 22 year old who other than a few games here and there, has shown barely any improvement in terms of his flaws, highly frustrating player.

had he stayed at Dortmund or joined Liverpool/Tottenham with a decent manager, we would be seeing a young player improving, not the finish product, yet on track to reach his potential but here, we get to watch another wasted year of development under this fraud of a manager

Pep would of turned this guy into a monster

Do not worry, this is the last season of Valverde here.
When we see this team play, it's horrible to see. There is no tactic, the game is slow and too boring to watch. all players are lost.
Dejong just said that the team was not playing well.
I hope that Bartomeu and the council will take this interview into account.
 

Givenchy

Senior Member
Do not worry, this is the last season of Valverde here.
When we see this team play, it's horrible to see. There is no tactic, the game is slow and too boring to watch. all players are lost.
Dejong just said that the team was not playing well.
I hope that Bartomeu and the council will take this interview into account.

dude i won't be surprised if Barto renews him midway through next season, something weird is going on with Valverde, his wages and this board

Dembele strikes me as someone who absolutely needs a mentor, a manager on his ass at every opportunity to improve his game, hes still pretty immature for his age also and this yolo manager basically telling the players 'go out there and play' with no direction is killing Dembouz career

its best for both parties if we send him to PSG under Tuchel and we re-sign Neymar, sad situation
 

tacticvarium

New member
More about football intelligence rather than killer instinct.
But other players often showed the same problem which can lead to possible speculation that they are not getting correct instructions from the manager and technical staff.
 
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Maxim4

New member
[tw]1158146136508719104[/tw]

this club is dying. instead of denouncing the terrible management of Valverde, these journalists prefer to criticize the players.
we will never see this in Madrid.
The Catalan newspapers are hypocrites, they will never question the work of the coach. cursed be he.
 

soul24rage

Senior Member
this club is dying. instead of denouncing the terrible management of Valverde, these journalists prefer to criticize the players.
we will never see this in Madrid.
The Catalan newspapers are hypocrites, they will never question the work of the coach. cursed be he.

Stuff like off the ball movement can be easily taught, which is the fault of the coach.
Dembele has great potential imo, but there's no point of potential if he doesn't improve.
I can't wait for the board to leave.
 

Maxim4

New member
Stuff like off the ball movement can be easily taught, which is the fault of the coach.
Dembele has great potential imo, but there's no point of potential if he doesn't improve.
I can't wait for the board to leave.

I do not know what you're talking about.
The movement of the ball is not very interesting for a winger or a playmaker. The key is to play well and he did it.
 

Laplacian

Senior Member
More about football intelligence rather than killer instinct.
But other players often showed the same problem which can lead to possible speculation that they are not getting correct instructions from the manager and technical staff.

Valverde's not the best coach certainly, but the quality of off the ball movement varies among players. Alba, Suarez, Messi, and now Griezmann still make threatening runs. Even Coutinho who's pretty much ineffective, has a better understanding of positional play than Dembele does. Off the ball movement is tactical and dependent on management, but it also depends on the player's ability implement said instructions in real time. Other players, players like Riqui Puig even, recognise space and chances far quicker and far more frequent than Dembele, whereas the latter either ignores them or makes the wrong choice altogether.

I remind you, he performs in the exact same erratic way for France whereas his teammates like Mbappe and Griezmann flourish with creativity. Deschamps is quite similar to Valverde, he leaves players up to their own devices. He honestly just looks like the type of player that'll need to be coddled 100% by a detail oriented coach (Tuchel, Pep, Sarri etc) in order to perform at his best.
 
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underoath

Banned
Just check the forum, yup it's Valverde's fault still if Dembele can't improve not because of the player really is mentally weak 😂 Dembele's fanboys
 

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