I thought Dembele was the difference in this one, though Dempsey (again) gets the headlines. Dembele and Murphy owned the middle of the park ... it must be quite frustrating for players on the opposing team playing against Dembele. He's like a crank old uncle, holding out a shiny coin (the ball). You reach for it, and just when you think you've got it, he snatches it away from you. There's nobody quite like him.
And the big difference over the past months has been the number of times Dembele has tackled back and retrieved the ball.
And that, my friend (aside from it being a brilliant analogy) is the kind of comment I like to hear, especially as the complaints towards him from last season were centred around him consistantly doing the opposite.
Wasn't at the game and only got round to watching football first last night (I know, what kind of fan am I???) I thought the Pog was excellent - worked hard, fitted in well and scored. And, lets face it - would Bobby Zamora have scored that goal? No - he would have hoofed it over the bar as per usual. Agree that Demps should have been credited with the goal (seems harsh on both him and Sorrenson who couldn't do anything about it) and that Dembele was excellent.
Dembele and Murphy in the midfield seems quite a combination. Both are good defenders and phenomenal passers. The fact that Dembele can do it is a credit to his quality as an all around player. Ruiz certainly couldn't do it.
Last season, I would have said "are you mad" - but it looking like an outside possibility - as long as there is a DM stopper available for some games.
I think the coaching staff at Fulham should take credit for Dembele's transformation, he was as bad as Ruiz, defensively, when he first joined. Maybe in a years time we will be talking about Ruiz- the creative but tough tackling DM...?!
