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He made us tick, the day he switched off from the Poch dream was the day the Poch dream died IMO.
Yep. Him and Dembele were the beating heart of the team.
Oh my, when Moose left the dream really did begin to crumble, what a player he was for us.
I don't think we do, especially from the Moose.So simple yet so beautiful from Eriksen
People underestimate how big an influence Eriksen and Dembele were to our team.
So simple yet so beautiful from Eriksen
People underestimate how big an influence Eriksen and Dembele were to our team.
Yep. Him and Dembele were the beating heart of the team.
Oh my, when Moose left the dream really did begin to crumble, what a player he was for us.
Took 3 managers and the bulk of his time here to crack the code though. Criminal in hindsight.
To be fair, I think a lot of that was probably down to Dembele himself.
AVB knew the talent he had signed and got under the nose of Sir Alex. Sherwood knew the talent and his assist Les Ferdinand quite often told Dembele that if he was consistent he could leave for Real Madrid (or something like that) and Poch called him a genius.
Dembele always struck me as someone who probably didn't care about football enough as a career to really dedicate and take himself to the next and highest level. He was just really really good at it and enjoyed being good at it.
I miss watching that man.
Is that not commonly accepted though?
Demebele provided the canvas (time and space) for Eriksen to paint on. Without Moussa, Eriksen often struggled.
Recognizing he had talent is one thing....
AVB played his as a DM and let Parker be the box to box.
Poch Played him at right wing and had us all thinking he'd be sold.
Sherwood (LOL) as happy to play Siggy at CM instead of him.
It was only in his brief partnership with Sandro and the latter half of Poch's tenure that we got a great deal out of him.
I think mine was a perfectly reasonable assessment tbf.
I get the other end of what you're saying though.... Perhaps he just found it all too easy... We heard the stories of the kind of player he was a a teen.
I just think if he really really wanted it - he wouldn't have been at Spurs, nor would he have ended up in China as the club following Spurs.
Why did he choose Spurs over United? - maybe he felt at Spurs he could be a bit more free, not have to work AS hard because of his natural ability whereas at United, especially under Ferguson, he'd perhaps have to go out of his comfort zone? etc.
Who knows. Dembele is always an interesting case. There were times where he really could have been sold. He wasn't really getting consistent game time and that's something he did speak about because he didn't want to lose his place in the Belgian team etc. - but he stuck with us, we stuck with him and eventually during the tail end of his career we managed to get him to click.
Disagree, and I think the facts don't back your notion. Dembele played no more than 58% of the available games with us, Eriksen much, much more. Possibly the most % minutes of any player in the Poch era.
Even last season with Eriksen allegedly phoning it in he contributed 27 goals/assists and 50 passes a game.
Personally I think he was the most influential player of Poch's reign. Just a very quiet player who never shouted it.
Could have been something as simple as him and his family being settled in London.
I always think the personal aspects can be overlooked.
I just think if he really really wanted it - he wouldn't have been at Spurs, nor would he have ended up in China as the club following Spurs.
Why did he choose Spurs over United? - maybe he felt at Spurs he could be a bit more free, not have to work AS hard because of his natural ability whereas at United, especially under Ferguson, he'd perhaps have to go out of his comfort zone? etc.
Who knows. Dembele is always an interesting case. There were times where he really could have been sold. He wasn't really getting consistent game time and that's something he did speak about because he didn't want to lose his place in the Belgian team etc. - but he stuck with us, we stuck with him and eventually during the tail end of his career we managed to get him to click.
It took years for people to get Dembele and I suspect that most went with the heard to avoid looking stupid. But even to this day, the part of Dembele's game that he never gets recognition for was what he did without the ball. The number of oppo attacks he prevented was huge, think Kante levels. He was a great tactical fouler and he covered a lot of ground quickly to get out to oppo runners, he would slow the attack down and show the oppo out wide numerous times in a game.So simple yet so beautiful from Eriksen
People underestimate how big an influence Eriksen and Dembele were to our team.