We talked about this guy on another thread, Spurf. But, just to reiterate. He's a player I've long admired. At £15mil, I think he's an outright steal!..
All the DMs really have to do is win the ball, and pass it to the back four (although Sandro, Livermore and Parker are actually quite good passers of the ball, that should not be their main role). We then pass the ball round until one of Dembele, Dempsey and Bale sees someone free in a dangerous position and slice through the defence. I kept saying that Modric would work better in the middle of the attacking three in 4231 but no-one agreed. Where did Mourinho play him yesterday? We lose matches against the best clubs because we don't learn from the best. Even the best take some time to adjust - United played 4231 yesterday and it didn't work very well, they only recovered by a swift change to 442, but I doubt SAF will give up on it after one failure - he saw how City beat them with it last year.
YV has been going on about this player for ages on threads, and I've seen bits of him from fulham, yet not enough to share the excitement or claim he can replace Modric. So am looking forward to see just why he is so highly rated, as we desperately need a player that can run from midfield and not lose the ball and this seems to be his two main qualities from what has been said. I just hope avb can allow the team to express themselves more in an attacking sense and so far we're far too cautious (without reason) and maybe dembele is the player that can shine the most.
Don't panic. I'm sure one of our decent league performances of recent years amazingly included not winning a game by more 2 goals. (the entire season that is)
Redknapp tried that for a number of games last season. I don't think that we won one of them, except for the 3-1 against Swansea at WHL.
A lot if managers do not believe in, and do not use out and out defensive midfield players. They are not exactly easy to find, but the box to box midfielder is what's needed. One that can pass too. I'm not sure on Dembele's fitness or work rate stats, but he can pass, tackle effectively, and reads the game very well. Sandro may be capable of the job also.
Roo you put lennon in infront of Dempsey?..i wouldnt..i think after Livermore..Lennon is the next weakest link..throw him on with 15 to go if we need him since he only seems to have one move in his locker nowadays.
I see my thread has been successfully subverted into yet another discussion on tactics. Thanks PNP. DEMBELE That's what we are talking about, not more ****ing tactics.
What is his game, is it football by any chance. Tactics? Get the ball, move it forward and put it in the net as soon as possible. OK! Now Dembele what do we think?
i think Dembele will be more directly involved in goals than Modric. Eg, he will be better for fantasy football
A lot of managers might think that - but I think they are wrong at the highest level. These all-rounder types rarely work when up against the very best - I give you Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. Obviously if you've got someone like Xabi Alonso as one of your DMs then you are going to get a lot of passing out of him too but that is not his prime role and he rarely creates anything for Madrid and Spain. His main job is not to lose the ball. The sort of defense splitting pass that Thudd comes up with from time to time, is not part of the system either as failed versions of the same give the ball away too much. The Spanish manager was criticised for playing Alonso and Busquets together but I think it was necessary to give a firm base to the team. And the reason that we don't need Andy Carroll (and that Spain sometimes went without a striker all together) is that 'lead-the-line' type strikers give the ball away too much because holding it up, winning high balls and flicking it on almost never work in practice. The whole philosophy of Spain/Barcelona/Real Madrid etc is that losing the ball is a heinous crime that must be avoided at all costs. People keep saying that we've tried this and it failed - we tried the formation but not the tactics. I'm sure the reason that AVB has a downer on Dawson is his love for long diagonal balls - again they work too seldom to be part of the tactics.
Have I been boring you? I saw his goal again today and it shows what he adds. None of our other players would have done that in his position, it'd have either been hit first time straight into the crowd of defenders or passed sideways or backwards as we patiently expect their defence to let us in. Dembele's skill and intelligence to pull off the neat little turns and flicks that can help us open teams up in the final third when the defence is organised and compact. In addition to that you're also getting a player who can bring the ball from defence to attack much like much like Luka did for us.
