Will the Fulham man become a true star?
During the long, lonely summer without Premier League football, United are linked with dozens of potential signings to improve the squad, especially after disappointing seasons (trophy wise) such as the one we have just had. While it is not the main point of this piece of writing, I would like to make the point that, since United spent £50m on the squad after securing a record 19th title and Champions League final place, it is unlikely that Sir Alex will only spend money in acquiring Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell in the 2012 summer transfer window.
One of the names linked to United since just before the 2011/12 season ended- I believe it was Saturday May 12th when the first links appeared- is Fulham’s central midfielder Moussa Dembele, converted into the position by Martin Jol after signing for the club under Mark Hughes, who employed Dembele in a support striker role.
The reaction on Twitter amongst United fans to the potential signing of Dembele has puzzled me. Essentially, the collective response of those Twitter users who follow United can be summed up by the word “Meh”; they seem underwhelmed by the prospect of Dembele joining United. This attitude appears to show little regard for the Belgian’s qualities, and a quick look at some of his statistics for the 2011/12 campaign show that he is deserving of more respect. Last season, of all the players- in every position, not just central midfield- in the Premier League, only Yohan Cabaye (116 tackles) attempted more tackles than Dembele (113 tackles). Given the tough-tackling players playing in the Premier League- for example Alex Song, Cheik Tiote, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure- this is an impressive statistic for a player who was consistently playing in a somewhat unfamiliar position for the first time. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Dembele, with 86 successful tackles, won more tackles than any other player in the Premier League last season.
When that facet of the debate has subsided, Dembele’s detractors then tend to state that his passing is not good enough for a central midfielder. This, another myth, is disproven by the fact that, last season, Dembele had a pass completion rate of 88.5%, impressive by any standards, especially given that the 2011/12 season was his first with central midfield as his principal position. Dembele managed an average of 1.4 key passes per game, only misplacing passes to opposition players an average of 1.1 times per game. Rather surprisingly, Dembele carried out a greater number of dribbles than the likes of Sergio Aguero and Nani last season, with an average of 2.2 dribbles per game, the third highest in the league. This appears to suggest that Dembele would bring a certain drive to United’s midfield that has arguably been lacking since Roy Keane left the club in November 2005.
I hope that, with the statistics provided above, I have been able to dispel some of the myths surrounding Moussa Dembele. Personally, I would be happy if United were to sign the powerful Belgian; yes, his goals and assists tallies for 2011/12 were low but, in my opinion, Dembele has the potential to be United’s powerful, box-to-box answer to Yaya Toure. In my opinion, it is vital that United find a powerful presence in the centre of midfield, someone who could come close to matching Toure’s power and pace; the events of April 30th were, quite frankly, embarrassing, with the United midfield dominated physically by both Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry.
Dembele’s tackling success and number of successful dribbles show that he could provide both the defensive influence to disrupt opposition attacks and the driving force to power United forward from the centre of midfield. Yaya Toure is arguably the best box-to-box central midfielder in Europe, but I believe that at United, Dembele, with his physique and skilful play, could flourish into the powerful box-to-box central midfielder that United need, able to drive the team forward and potentially come close to matching Yaya Toure’s influence at the heart of Manchester City’s team.
For more football related tweets follow me on twitter @UnitedJosh
Fellani is the Belgian we should be chasing, Dembele is a tidy player but there are better options out there. but as you say he has alot of potential and would hopefully grow like Valencia has since joining us if we did sign him.
I’ve been supporting the idea of Moussa Dembele for a while. He has a great season for Fulham but really impressed me against England in the friendly at Wembley. Dembele only has one year left on his deal so we should push to sign him for £10 million. I think he would be a great addition to the squad. We should also move to sign Axel Witsel from Benfica.
I agree 100% with this article, and hae been thinking the same for a while myself. embele has allthe tools needed, and is at just the right age, to step up and become a real top class central midfielder. He has a mixture of technical and physical attributes like few other in the league.
He first came to my attention in the game between Manchester City and Fulham at the Etihad this season, where, despite Fulham losing 3-0, he was outstanding. City’s midfield has been the only real area in which we can’t match them, and t see him handle their pressing with both strength and skill was great.
He is actually my number one midfield choice, and despite probably initially failing to satisfy many Unite fans hopes, I’d expect he’d become a favourite in no time, and will be our best midfielder.
Would be an excellent acquisition…United need players that will not be hurried off the ball in mf…this guy has the size, strength, skill and right amount of arrogance to be a standout ..Witsel would be another great purchase… Witsel – Dembele behind and beside Kagawa would be very, very potent…
Blaine’s, despite his unfashionable style would be another solid purchase. He is a far better defender than Evra, good going forward and quite the free kick specialist..
Denis Irwin is widely regarded as an all time United great…Baines is very much in that mold and is naturally left footed..
My sentiments entirely.
Since the Baines stories gathered pace i have been saying he osprey the closest thing i have seen to Irwin…..
Idiot just because baines is a good player does that mean we’re forgetting that only ashley cole has stood in the way of evra being the best left back in the prem for the last five years!!
@Adrian – you clearly have no clue about defending and let’s be honest, that is Evra’s first priority in a 4-4-2..
There have been numerous situations over the past year or 2 where Evra has allowed players to get blind side of him or he has stood and allowed opponents to run beyond him, only to offer a feeble attempt at recovery in the end.
Evra is sensational in the mid to top third of the field, however his positional sense is at times akin to what is found in a pub league, which could explain your tolerance.
Fair enough Evra has been on the slide since the world cup debacle with france but Baines is totally over-rated. His defending ability is virtually non existant and the only skill he has is his ability to take a half decent free kick. That skill is not worth 20m+.
Evra is still 10 times the player that Baines is, and the fact baines is 27 should be reason enough not to sign him.
If he does sign up I will be more disgusted than when I first saw the disgusting new kit…
The price is high, however that’s the cost of an English international.
Evra has never been a great defender when tracking and covering his back post. Surely if you are a student of the game you would know that. Baines is actually quite an efficient defender and very much in the Irwin mold..Further 27 is far from old for a defender and again, he wont be sold for 20 million….
Funky – you need to give up the funk..
Typo – Baines
I watched in awe at the way Dembele played against England at Wembley. He was the best Belgian player on show, and much better than the 35 million player who was to sign for us and toddled off to Chelsea instead. I think it is not Dembele’s fault that he didn’t get as many assists as he deserved to get at Fulham, as he made the passes, but the Fulham strikers couldn’t put them away. At United I think he would get more goals and assists, so I hope we sign the lad.
This is supposed to be a United site & you’re asking a question that suggests we need a City type player, what have we come to???
Agreed. Not sure Dembele’s good enough anyway.
Exactly
Good point very well made
You serious? Yaya is one of the best mids in the game and has pretty much everything we lack in our midfield… I don’t care WHO he plays for, he’s world class.
Am I serious? Are you serious asking me that mate? I don’t know your age or location but I’m 46, born and bred a couple of miles from OT, now living walking distance from the ground. Where I come from you understand the bitterness of “them” & you hate them back, simple as that. I’ve watched United all over Britain & a few places in Europe & I have no time for nanny pamby modern politically correct ways…. I hate them. Now our majestic football club has dominated English football for over 20 years while they have been a joke. They then get catapulted into the big time by Arab donations. All I hear from them is derision about our debt, ignoring the fact that it has been put on us (us the richest sports club on the planet in terms of turnover) by those Yank parasites. They have the nerve to refer to us as ‘rags’ & they basically are without a close 2nd, THE most bitter city rivals of any club on earth. Si to conclude my friend, I don’t give them an inch & neither should any red worth their salt so the last thing I want to see, regardless of how good ‘Yaya’ may be is a Manchester United site giving them any ammunition. I’ve never known a citeh fan admit we have ONE player world class who they could do with so do not give that to them when, let’s face it we’ve had tonnes of them while those fools were waving around inflatable fruit and feeding goats.
I agree 100% with d article. And truth be told yaya is the best of his kind nd recognising dat fact in an attempt 2 get some1 as good as him is the right thing 2 do
nice stats – always liked the way he shaped, looked tidy and skillful, but didn’t realise he was so effective.
i just wish to they’d sign someone somewhat powerful that isn’t a total crock ala hargo, ando, fletch (sorry lad).
it would be simple sound business to sign this guy as £10m cover / replacement for Fletcher as we wait to see how he recovers.
but I think the management of the club is terrible in the area of CM as last season showed where we were rescued from disaster by Scholes, while the club went into the season knowing how bad Fletcher’s condition was, even as the fans were screaming for a player in the CM (and expecting Fletcher back!), rubbish,
and the list of United signings in MF is historically terrible from 2000 on (save Carrick, Veron Djemba Kleberson Anderson Hargreaves, + playing Gibson) total rubbish.
with all the great players in other positions we could have ruled Europe if we’d got those MF singings even half right. they were pure sh1t and Sir Bobby or someone needs to have a word w Ferguson or Glazers and tell them this is important.
Hargreaves and Anderson have been negatively impacted by serious injuries, however United won the CL with both in the team as well as multiple EPL trophies.
If memory serves me correctly, Fergie bought Ince, Keane & Carrick,