Dango Ouattara

zigger zaggar said:
You seem to have a real disbelief in Dembele, I don't share your absolute certainty that he's not good enough. He has not been given enough of a chance but every time he's had a chance he's not let anyone down.
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Yeah can appreciate how it may come across as too damning for sure.

I genuinely don;t think he's good enough though, as you can tell by now :D. I don;t think everyone deserves a chance, players have ceilings, although sometimes under right manager, circumstances, players can surprise many, but that's rare, rather than the rule.

Given our predicament, perhaps he should have been given more of a chance, as we're crying out for pace/spark. I honestly think what we saw after 5 mins v Brentford is what would be typical with Dembele at this level - he'd get completely nullified, marked out the game, despite his pace/acceleration.
 
MB1980 said:
Yeah can appreciate how it may come across as too damning for sure.

I genuinely don;t think he's good enough though, as you can tell by now :D. I don;t think everyone deserves a chance, players have ceilings, although sometimes under right manager, circumstances, players can surprise many, but that's rare, rather than the rule.

Given our predicament, perhaps he should have been given more of a chance, as we're crying out for pace/spark. I honestly think what we saw after 5 mins v Brentford is what would be typical with Dembele at this level - he'd get completely nullified, marked out the game, despite his pace/acceleration.
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We didn’t give him the ball after about 5 minutes FFS. Literally our only player right now capable of creating anything and you still wouldn’t play him? I’m not even saying he’s good enough for this level, just that he’s our best option right now. If we refused to field players who weren’t good enough for this level, then we wouldn’t be able to put out a first eleven. At this point if you would play Christie over Dembele I’d say that you’ve lost the plot, unless you enjoy your wingers just cutting inside and passing backwards every time they have the ball.?
 
KingKieffer said:
We didn’t give him the ball after about 5 minutes FFS. Literally our only player right now capable of creating anything and you still wouldn’t play him? I’m not even saying he’s good enough for this level, just that he’s our best option right now. If we refused to field players who weren’t good enough for this level, then we wouldn’t be able to put out a first eleven. At this point if you would play Christie over Dembele I’d say that you’ve lost the plot, unless you enjoy your wingers just cutting inside and passing backwards every time they have the ball.?
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The problem that we have when we've only got one player who can beat a man as Dembele does, it's easy for teams to mark them out of the game. We saw it in the championship with Danjuma at times and it's obvious how good he is. If we have more options that cause problems, we create more space. I'd love to see Dembele given more game time, beats a man, presses well and has that spark. He may not be good enough, I suspect he is.
 
I like Dembele.
Christie has a slightly more physical presence and a good engine. So in this moment in time I’d prefer Christie to start.
Apparently that means ‘I’ve lost the plot’.
Could be true actually.
 
Dembele has been coming on when we are chasing a game, and the other team is sitting back. My suspicion is still that we are worried about his physicality if he starts a game and we're on the back foot. He'll be targeted as a route they can take where they can just barge past him. It has happened a few times that he's bounced off an opponent like school kid.

Is what he brings to the team enough to warrant that risk? Debatable for many but not really a risk averse manager like GON.

I'll be honest, I see him as an impact sub more than anything. However, if we sign Danjuma it could be to his benefit. We'd have to change the system to accomodate Danjuma's less effective defensive work and Dembele could drop directly into that position if we wanted to make a change.
 
Christie on one side and Dembele on the other. Dembele's full back has to be slightly more disciplined to allow Dembele the freedom for his higher risk moves, whereas Christie's full back has more license to attack knowing Christie is more cautious and will cover.

We need fewer individuals and more partnerships.
 
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BoscombeCherry said:
The problem that we have when we've only got one player who can beat a man as Dembele does, it's easy for teams to mark them out of the game. We saw it in the championship with Danjuma at times and it's obvious how good he is. If we have more options that cause problems, we create more space. I'd love to see Dembele given more game time, beats a man, presses well and has that spark. He may not be good enough, I suspect he is.
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As with players like Grealish, Zaha and the Wee t*rd, these players help draw defenders which opens up the space for others, but only if your team attacks as one. They also help to win free kicks in dangerous areas, but that only matters if you can take a free kick without giving it back to the opposition for them to score.
 
When we had Defoe first time around he played closer to Fletch up front and scored for 10 league games in a row.

When Keifer plays on his own up front when Dom is out we need someone playing closer to him like Dembele. Keifer is 6ft 4in but if he starts a game you just have to play to his strengths. At Brentford he was starved of the ball most of the time.
 
NornIron said:
Handily enough the #11 shirt for us has just been vacated by Marcondes. Can two players wear the same number in the same season? (aside from that Ronaldo 7 nonsense that Man U did)....
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You used to be able to. Stevland Angus wore number 27 in the same season as Defoe. I don't think that's changed.
 
MB1980 said:
Yeah can appreciate how it may come across as too damning for sure.

I genuinely don;t think he's good enough though, as you can tell by now :D. I don;t think everyone deserves a chance, players have ceilings, although sometimes under right manager, circumstances, players can surprise many, but that's rare, rather than the rule.

Given our predicament, perhaps he should have been given more of a chance, as we're crying out for pace/spark. I honestly think what we saw after 5 mins v Brentford is what would be typical with Dembele at this level - he'd get completely nullified, marked out the game, despite his pace/acceleration.
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But it would help if we passed the bloody ball to him. At Brentford it was as if our players were told not to pass to that Dembele after he had the audacity to come on and go past three of their defenders and have a shot that forced their keeper to make a save. Then as you say he is marked by two or three of their defenders. For one; that should then free up space for our other attack minded players (oh, wait) and for seconds; surely that shows to you that even if you don't rate him the opposition team clearly does as they feel the need to double up on him?
But clearly he's not PL quality!
 
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