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Ex-Player Watch Player Watch: Mousa Dembele

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Since I've been back reading the forum regularly you have claimed:

"Onomah already does some things better than Dembele."

You've also said you'd be happy to go into next season with Wanyama, Winks, Onomah and "a new guy", not even mentioning Dembele.

You are more overboard with your praise for Onomah than 3000 occupants of the Titanic mate.

And to be fair, 300 decent minutes from Dembele? He's been our best player (or equal best) in the last 4 matches alone, regardless of how inconsistent he has been and for whatever reason, we are talking a fuck-tonne more than "300 decent minutes".

I like you, I rate you, I value you, but you'd give even the most loyal Chocolate Labrador a feeling of "Oh fuck offfffffffffff....mate"

Oh stop it Bear. Eriksen was by a country mile our best player against ManU (even voted on SC, where Dembele has his own appreciation society, by about 4 votes to 1). Dembele was only a viable contender for MOTM in two of those games. Even SC voted for Vertonghen over Dembele against Liverpool by about 2/1, possibly because he was like dervish on smack for the first 45 there.


Don't inflate until you're in the water FFS
 

Spurs_Bear

Well-Known Member
Jan 7, 2009
17,094
22,286
Oh stop it Bear. Eriksen was by a country mile our best player against ManU (even voted on SC, where Dembele has his own appreciation society, by about 4 votes to 1). Dembele was only a viable contender for MOTM in two of those games. Even SC voted for Vertonghen over Dembele against Liverpool by about 2/1, possibly because he was like dervish on smack for the first 45 there.


Don't inflate until you're in the water FFS

SC used to vote for Pavlyuchenko as MOTM. Null and void.

Get off that floating door, there's easily room for two you frozen bastard.
 

swarvsta

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2008
773
4,061
Ironic you use stats against the rest of us, when Dembele's pass completion is probably been the club that his admirers use most to beat the rest of us round the head with, ignoring the real world stuff like the fact that he rarely plays clever or incisive passes that change football matches.

I feel sad for any fan that's daft enough to be blinded by what he thinks he likes and what a player actually does, and compare a player who's controlled the midfield about 2 and a half games in a season with one that has been doing it at the highest end of football for several years week in week out.

I watch a lot of football, live and televised, and can honestly say there about 10-15 CM's I'd happily have had in our midfield over the last few years, ones that not only help teams control a game, but also know when to pass the ball instead trying to dribble past one more player, to then make a simple pass that could have been made at the start, players who play with their head up not down, players who are clever enough to know how to make the ball do the work, as well of or instead of their hips. Midfielders that turn up most weeks a season, not a handful. Midfielders who are exceptional even when they are being pressed, not just when they are playing against a bus.

You are a wannabe football pundit.

Accept when you are wrong and just move on.

I am a Spurs fan and love Dembele. He is a joy to watch when at his best.

You think you know everything. You don’t.

Onomah and Winks would LOVE to become as good as Dembele. That is a fact. Ask them!

Oh no, you can’t. You’re an armchair pundit.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
You are a wannabe football pundit.

Accept when you are wrong and just move on.

I am a Spurs fan and love Dembele. He is a joy to watch when at his best.

You think you know everything. You don’t.

Onomah and Winks would LOVE to become as good as Dembele. That is a fact. Ask them!

Oh no, you can’t. You’re an armchair pundit.

This is an unpleasantly personal post.
There are no rights and wrongs in this
just opinions.
BC is certainly not always right but he argues his position.
He is way off about Dele for example
but I wouldn't abuse him personally for it.
 

npearl4spurs

Believing Member
Sep 9, 2014
4,191
10,973
This is an unpleasantly personal post.
There are no rights and wrongs in this
just opinions.
BC is certainly not always right but he argues his position.
He is way off about Dele for example
but I wouldn't abuse him personally for it.

your opinion of BC sucks and you suck
 

Cravenspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2011
2,864
3,680
I have made plenty of comments on these boards that put me in the anti-Dembele pool. I own what I have said and still think he has a tendency to slow down our play with his slalom skiing ways. He has all the talent in the world to be a top top CM, but I feel his mind hinders his bodies abilities to perform because he is risk adverse.

But yesterday and the Man U game have shown a bit of maturity in the guy. He is making forward passes with more zip and imagination and not just sideways passing when he makes that initial move on the defender. He will always be able to beat the man, but now he is beating the man and then beating the collapsing help with a pass versus another mazing dribble.

Maybe it is his hip that is causing this growth in him? Could he be slowing down whilst speeding up? He has shown glimpses of this style of play, but has reverted back to his old ways a couple games too. I love this new Dembele and want to see it more!
 

SEANSPURS1975

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
1,929
4,787
Always been a huge fan of Dembele. An absolute top quality midfielder. Showed last night exactly what he’s all about.
That performance was something very special, his best game in a Tottenham shirt.
Looks as fit as ever and If he can stay that way we can achieve big things this season.
 

swarvsta

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2008
773
4,061
This is an unpleasantly personal post.
There are no rights and wrongs in this
just opinions.
BC is certainly not always right but he argues his position.
He is way off about Dele for example
but I wouldn't abuse him personally for it.

You are probably right. I didn’t mean to be personal in any way. It’s just BC comes across as such a know-it-all, it is hard not to pick up on this. Especially when his views are so blinkered.

I guess we agree to disagree.

I am happy with Dembele being picked ahead of Winks and Onomah. Although their time may come.

I think Dele’s flicks and tricks are annoying at times, but am certain he adds more to our play than he takes away.

I still think Walker is superior to Trippier.

It seems I just always have the opposite optiniom to BC! But I am happy Poch seems to share my views!

Sorry BC, I know you take your football opinion very seriously and spend a huge amount of your life posting on here - I will quietly disagree with you.

COYS
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
So it just dawned on me that England has to come up against Dembele, De Bruyne, Hazard, Mertens, Vertonghen and Alderweireld and Carrasco in the summer.

Fucks sake.
 

npearl4spurs

Believing Member
Sep 9, 2014
4,191
10,973
So it just dawned on me that England has to come up against Dembele, De Bruyne, Hazard, Mertens, Vertonghen and Alderweireld and Carrasco in the summer.

Fucks sake.

I know Lukaku is over-rated, but he still ought to be mentioned among those, right?
 

Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
Mousa Dembele gives Tottenham the character and backbone they lacked a few years ago... it is great to see him finally get the credit he deserves
  • Mousa Dembele has shown that he has all the qualities of a top midfielder
  • Against Juventus he showed there is an arrogance to his play as he excelled
  • He gives Tottenham the character and backbone they lacked a few years ago
  • If the midfielder is in trouble, his first movement is to glide past an opponent
By Martin Keown for the Daily Mail


Mousa Dembele is such an important player for Tottenham because he gives them physical and mental strength.

He is imposing, anticipates danger and is strong in the tackle. Yet he also brings a mental toughness that makes fightbacks such as the one against Juventus possible.

Dembele gives Tottenham the character and backbone they lacked a few years ago.

But it's not just his strength that makes him so formidable. Dembele has all the qualities of a top midfielder.

He can receive the ball in any situation and is always looking to get Spurs on the front foot. There is an arrogance to his play.

If Dembele is in trouble, his first movement is to glide past an opponent.

At Fulham, he played further forward and showed his ability to break from midfield and score.

Now he is thriving in a deeper role, providing the platform for attacks.

Mauricio Pochettino has often withdrawn Dembele towards the end of games but now he is approaching peak fitness.

It is great to see him finally get the credit he deserves.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Tottenham-backbone-lacked.html#ixzz579xcMQxp
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
There’s is unquestionably more emphasis on him passing forward. Which presumably has come from Poch. If he could add the odd goal he really would be special.
 

Donki

Has a "Massive Member" Member
May 14, 2007
14,451
18,966
Only on SC could we go on our current run of form and still we bitch and moan like 12yos, enjoy the moment FFS. :mad:
 

whitestreak

SC Supporter
Dec 8, 2006
820
3,406
Tottenham's Mousa Dembele has qualities that no other Premier League player possesses. Adam Bate looks at why the midfielder is irreplaceable for Mauricio Pochettino…



It was after a north London derby in November 2016 that Mauricio Pochettino first used the word in public. "He is a genius, no?" the Tottenham boss asked the reporters in the room. Mousa Dembele was the man he was referring to and the midfielder has given his manager plenty of reason to repeat the line since that afternoon against Arsenal.



Pochettino was at it again after the latest derby earlier this month when reflecting on another Dembele masterclass at Wembley. "I have told you many times," he began. "For me, he is a genius. An unbelievable player." Dembele's subsequent display in Tottenham's comeback draw with Juventus in Turin only underlined the form that he is currently in.

La Gazzetta dello Sport had talked him up beforehand as a key player who sets the rhythm for his side but someone who could be stopped if pressed. Nobody got close. Time and again he was away with a drop of the shoulder as he proceeded to control the game. No Juve player made more than 10 passes in the opposition half. Dembele completed 73.


It is true to say that he makes Pochettino's team tick. Certainly, it is no coincidence that Tottenham have found their best form just as Dembele has started five consecutive Premier League games for the first time in almost a year. The Belgian brings things to this team that nobody else can - and not just this team. Dembele's skill-set is unique anywhere.


Even in the age of universality with defenders who can attack and attackers who can defend, he is a one-off - impossible to knock off the ball but with that rare ability to beat players in central areas. It shows up in the stats. He is the only player to rank among the top 20 players in the Premier League for both tackles and dribbles over the past three seasons.


It is not just the volume. He is better at it too. Of midfielders to have attempted 40 or more dribbles in the Premier League this season, Dembele has by far the best success rate - evading his opponent 88 per cent of the time. As more teams opt for a pressing style of play, this ability to glide beyond players is a great asset, opening up the game for his side.


Asked earlier this month to name the best player in the Tottenham squad, young midfielder Harry Winks did not pick out Harry Kane and he explained exactly why. "Mousa Dembele for me," Winks told Sky Sports. "He has got sheer power, pace, his strength and his technique as well. The way he can beat any player facing them up, for me he is the best player."


Just as significantly, when Dembele has faced up his marker and beaten the press, he can pick out passes better than the rest too. His pass completion rate in the opposition half is superior to that of any other midfielder in the Premier League. He is the only midfield regular to have found a team-mate with more than 90 per cent of such passes this season.


Pochettino, of course, is well aware that Dembele is a player who does things differently to everyone else. The Argentine roomed with the great Diego Maradona and played with the Brazilian magician Ronaldinho, but he was happy to rank Dembele alongside them when reflecting on the most extraordinary players that he has come across in his career.


"In my book he will be one of my genius players that I have been lucky to meet," he said in March. "One was Maradona, the others Ronaldinho, [Jay-Jay] Okocha and [Ivan] de la Pena - he was a genius too - and Mousa Dembele. We always told him that if we had taken him at 18 or 19 years old, he would have become one of the best players in the world."


It is difficult to miss the hint of regret in that statement. The sense of an opportunity wasted. Dembele began his career as a forward, one who idolised Patrick Kluivert and was even likened to him in his youth. He won the Eredivisie after scoring 10 goals in 23 games playing as part of the front line for Louis van Gaal's AZ Alkmaar team of 2009.


It was only under another Dutchman, Martin Jol, that Dembele was eventually switched to midfield. He had bounced around between positions until Jol - who described him as "the best player on the ball" that he'd ever seen - deployed him in the centre of the pitch for Fulham away to Chelsea on Boxing Day of 2011. But, by that stage, Dembele was already 24.


No wonder Pochettino wishes that he had got hold of him a decade before he did. That game against Juventus, that dominant display against one of European football's super powers, was the 30-year-old Dembele's first Champions League appearance in the knockout stages of the tournament. It is a stage that he should have enjoyed far earlier.


He is making up for lost time now, but that big frame remains a concern. "We must be careful about his fitness," Pochettino warned earlier this month. An ankle injury disrupted Dembele in pre-season and only now is he beginning to find his best form again. It has taken lots of work with the sports science department to get him strong and fit once more.


The recent matches against Arsenal and Juve show just how important that Dembele still is to this Tottenham team. As La Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out, he remains "one of Pochettino's irreplaceables" and that is not merely due to the money it would cost to do so. It is because there is simply nobody else in the game who plays it quite like Mousa Dembele.



http://www.skysports.com/football/n...unique-genius-and-irreplaceable-for-tottenham
 

Basil Brush

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
1,691
3,080
Nice article.

The big question is who we replace him with long term.

I am sure Poch is already looking at this.
 
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