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Mousa Dembele

Don't think he has been the same player this season as last.

He is a critical player for us, both in term of how much power he adds to midfield, as well as just calmness, but definitely no where near top form right now.

As another poster mentioned, not very different from rest of team, so hopefully he kicks on soon.
 
Raziel said:
Don't think he has been the same player this season as last.

He is a critical player for us, both in term of how much power he adds to midfield, as well as just calmness, but definitely no where near top form right now.

As another poster mentioned, not very different from rest of team, so hopefully he kicks on soon.
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We certainly have a lot of attacking players significantly off form so far this season. And we've been without Kane for much of the season so far. Now Lamela is out too. An upswing of form from one or two lads at the right time as well as Kane back could see us really come together I think.
 
Raziel said:
Don't think he has been the same player this season as last.

He is a critical player for us, both in term of how much power he adds to midfield, as well as just calmness, but definitely no where near top form right now.

As another poster mentioned, not very different from rest of team, so hopefully he kicks on soon.
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He may not have reached the heights of last season but it was a high bar that he set. Factor in that he missed the 1st 4 games and has been in and out of the team due to injury, that he hasnt replicated last season's form is easier to understand than several other players. But despite that he was still the stand out player against Arsenal and was good but not as dominant as usual yesterday. Thought his partner Wanyama played far worse yesterday. It is a shame considering how good he has been that when it is perceived he has a bad game the same posters use the old sticks like his lack of goals to beat him with. It really is football snobbery because he doesn't do fancy dan flicks or pass at the speed of light through the eye of a needle.
 
Yoof said:
It had nothing to do with him contributing to our slow and ponderous play then?
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Take your pick of players who could have been replaced then if that was your measure, I don't think dembele was particularly causing us to slow our play down. It had more to do with us being unable to make simple passes as a team and failing to use the full width of the pitch. I think Poch wanted to add wide attack ing players because we were losing so sacrificed one of the DMs. I don't believe dembele was removed because he was slowing the game down. It's funny how last season when we were zipping the ball around he was a big part of that team. This season when we are struggling to find our passing rhythm it is down to Dembele.
 
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Robspur12 said:
Take your pick of players who could have been replaced then if that was your measure, I don't think dembele was particularly causing us to slow our play down. It had more to do with us being unable to make simple passes as a team and failing to use the full width of the pitch. I think Poch wanted to add wide attacking players because we were losing so sacrificed one of the DMs. I don't believe dembele was removed because he was slowing the game down. It's funny how last season when we were zipping the ball around he was a big part of that team. This season when we are struggling to find our passing rhythm it is down to Dembele.
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Yeah I think our formation was the main problem at the start. It suited West Ham as they were keeping things fairly compact and defensive. Rose and Walker didn't get forward much and as a result everything was through the centre. Kane and Janssen were side by side on the offside line mostly but because of the amount of players in the middle, balls through to them were rare. Also I thought the pair of them were quite static which didn't help. Dembele got hooked in the reshuffle but it could just as easily have been Wanyama who had his worst game for us to date.
Hopefully Poch learns something from that game.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Absolutely agree. People just cannot get the ball of Dembele, he needs to make more driving runs into the box and have more shots.
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For me it's not even about having more shots at goal. If you look at his midfield dribbling work, especially in tight situations, he actually gets fouled a hell of a lot. They hold his shirt, hack at him etc. It's just that he would rather use his strength and stay on his feet. So those fouls don't get called.

If he can just get the ball inside the box, he doesn't even need to shoot. He can just win penalties. He'd be a nightmare for defenders.

His tendency is to play behind the ball, but he needs to start getting ahead of the ball more often. And trust his team mates find him
 
He had an off day for him Saturday; normally, he takes the ball and glides past players with it, but against West Ham, he kept running into traffic and having to turn back round. That was surely partly down to the sheer narrowness of our attack, though. Before Son came on and changed it, we were making it too easy for them to crowd us out.
 
He hasn't been the same player since he picked up that injury at Euro 2016.
Rested him mid week and he still looked knackered by half time.

There's no way he'll be playing against Hull.

We might be better off just giving him an extended rest to rebuild up strength or sort out his injury.

Bring him back for Chelsea in January.
 
He has never been able to play well in more then one game a week.

I like him and on his day he is great, but with his worsening injuries and our financial situation I would sell now while the price is high and go and get N'zonzi.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
He didn't play midweek
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I am thinking more in general, when he has played and I am thinking back over the seasons, when he played europa league he would always play poorly on the sunday, it is my belief that he is only capable in general of playing once a week. He is a good player but his injuries are only going to become more frequent and with the pressing system of Poch his problems will only get worse.
 
As has always been the case with Dembele - when he plays well we usually win. Doesn't matter who the opposition is. Last season he was very consistent. This year, not so much...
 
maybe last year was the exception rather than the rule for him.Everyone seems to be playing one or two levels below last year at once
 
Amazing how fickle people are. A few weeks ago we're desperately missing him, he's out one key player, the next he's our weakness! The truth is somewhere in between. Since the Goon game, where he ran the show, other teams have ensured he is stifled. Dembele is still a good player, maybe he is carrying something. He needs to play some games, the team need to stretch the opposition more, open up space. Lets just hope we can play a consistent side for a bit now. Dembele will be fine.
 
I posted on here a few weeks ago that Dembélé is a problem for Poch, when he plays well he is special but when you look at his goal/assists record it is poor '( and that is being kind) If you add in the fact that he seems to get injurys on a regular basis and is getting no younger i am sure Poch is thinking about it. Lots of fans believe he is paramount to us being a successful but if we have to keep changing the team because of his injury problems then that is not going to work long term( imo).
 
Dembele has become too injury-prone since coming back from his suspension. Until he becomes injury-free, we cannot expect to see the best of him.
 
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