Mousa Dembélé

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Raumdeuterz said:
I love Dembele and rate him very highly (more highly than you, by the sounds of it) but anyone saying he was better than Modric is 100% off their fucking rocker.
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It depends on how you define a "better" player. Dembélé was almost as injury prone as Ledley King was, and had to play thru pain almost every game he was fit, and he wasn't moved into midfield until after he joined Spurs, at 25, while Modric has played CMF basically his whole career (yes, I know he played out wide at the start at Spurs), and he stayed injury free (which is also a "quality" one may say).
Sure, Modric has achieved more success both at the club level and with the national team than Dembélé but the comparison is not as black & white and clearly in Modric's favor as you claim. There are so many players and coaches who rave about Dembélé being the best player they've seen.
It's a bit like comparing injury-prone Ledley Kinng with John Terry.
 
Pathfinder said:
It depends on how you define a "better" player. Dembélé was almost as injury prone as Ledley King was, and had to play thru pain almost every game he was fit, and he wasn't moved into midfield until after he joined Spurs, at 25, while Modric has played CMF basically his whole career (yes, I know he played out wide at the start at Spurs), and he stayed injury free (which is also a "quality" one may say).
Sure, Modric has achieved more success both at the club level and with the national team than Dembélé but the comparison is not as black & white and clearly in Modric's favor as you claim. There are so many players and coaches who rave about Dembélé being the best player they've seen.
It's a bit like comparing injury-prone Ledley Kinng with John Terry.
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Even if Dembele had no injuries I don't see him ever reaching that level. Which is not a criticism of him, Modric is one of the best of all time. Dembele was a physical monster who could dribble & was extremely press resistant. Modric is press resistant too, but also a magician in terms of his ability to unlock teams. Dembele never had that ability to pick a pass or to score goals. That game winning assist vs Chelsea? Magic, one in a million talent.

And again, I loved Dembele. Amazing, unique player. I don't really like comparing them either, both in the same midfield would be a dream. But you can make a solid argument that Modric is the best midfielder of the last decade, and that puts him in a different tier list. Of course there's 'what if's' but the reality of what Modric did and the player he still is now in his mid 30's is incredible.

And I get players/coaches loved Dembele. I'm sure I could find very similar quotes about Modric. Dembele was a perfect 'team' player, great at tactical fouling, great at drawing players in & then allowing the creatives to function. He was underappreciated and it's natural players wanted to rave about him because of that.
 
bus-conductor said:
Dembele was one of the most press resistant footballers you'll see, you could put him in a cage with 5 other fellas and - on his good day - it would take them 10 minutes to get the ball off him. Having a player like him to take the ball in any situation was incredibly useful.

But he was and has become the most over hyped legend of any spurs player I can remember.

Superior to Modric ? Hoddle ? Ardiles ? Ridiculous.

Fans love a dribbler, but his passing was perfunctory at best, and I'm not talking about assists and through balls, I'm talking about general incisiveness and passing through midfield lines. He was often very slow to release the ball, and when he did it was incredibly safe. Many occasions where he slowed transition, not enabled it. There's nothing wrong with that when you have others around taking risks, and when it was all clicking for us, and people like Eriksen to take the ball off him and actually be incisive it was a great blend, but lets not pretend his ability with the ball was close to people like Modric, Hoddle, Ardiles - all of whom were press resistant as well as being able to see incisive passes and deliver them, and quickly. Ardiles and Modric also grafted and were much more dynamic around the pitch than Dembele.

He only played about 50% of available (PL) minutes for spurs (8975 minutes - Modric 7933 minutes) And everyone seems to forget the many phases where he was coming back from his chronic injury and he would take about a month to get back up to speed (and his speed was never exactly "speed") and he'd get caught dawdling on the ball or be off the pace.

That Juve game someone posted above is a great example of bad Dembele as well as good, he was like a turtle in a windsock for the first half hour - getting caught messing about and unable to track runners - and by the time that 30 minutes was over, we were two nil down and the tie effectively lost.

he had some great attributes, and when part of the right blend was really good, but he needed that blend as much as that blend needed him.
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Saw this post being replied to today. Tried to disagree but it seems I already did when it was hot off the presses. Consider this reply for emphasis.
 
bus-conductor said:
Dembele was one of the most press resistant footballers you'll see, you could put him in a cage with 5 other fellas and - on his good day - it would take them 10 minutes to get the ball off him. Having a player like him to take the ball in any situation was incredibly useful.

But he was and has become the most over hyped legend of any spurs player I can remember.

Superior to Modric ? Hoddle ? Ardiles ? Ridiculous.

Fans love a dribbler, but his passing was perfunctory at best, and I'm not talking about assists and through balls, I'm talking about general incisiveness and passing through midfield lines. He was often very slow to release the ball, and when he did it was incredibly safe. Many occasions where he slowed transition, not enabled it. There's nothing wrong with that when you have others around taking risks, and when it was all clicking for us, and people like Eriksen to take the ball off him and actually be incisive it was a great blend, but lets not pretend his ability with the ball was close to people like Modric, Hoddle, Ardiles - all of whom were press resistant as well as being able to see incisive passes and deliver them, and quickly. Ardiles and Modric also grafted and were much more dynamic around the pitch than Dembele.

He only played about 50% of available (PL) minutes for spurs (8975 minutes - Modric 7933 minutes) And everyone seems to forget the many phases where he was coming back from his chronic injury and he would take about a month to get back up to speed (and his speed was never exactly "speed") and he'd get caught dawdling on the ball or be off the pace.

That Juve game someone posted above is a great example of bad Dembele as well as good, he was like a turtle in a windsock for the first half hour - getting caught messing about and unable to track runners - and by the time that 30 minutes was over, we were two nil down and the tie effectively lost.

he had some great attributes, and when part of the right blend was really good, but he needed that blend as much as that blend needed him.
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Fan's overhype him because he represents the last time we had a competent midfield until now.

The very definition of a 'streets will never forget' baller
 
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Shadydan said:
I don't think I've ever seen his fellow pro's come out and say he's the best midfielder to play for Spurs or one of our greatest ever players...
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There's been multiple current and former Spurs players that have claimed Dembele to be the greatest player in the team while he was with us. Even some claiming him as the best to ever play for us based on pure ability.

 
Shadydan said:
I don't think I've ever seen his fellow pro's come out and say he's the best midfielder to play for Spurs or one of our greatest ever players...
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I'm not shooting for that accolade for him personally but this very convo was sparked by KDB being the latest of a string of his peers showering him with extreme praise.

Hence the question.
 
Airfixx said:
I'm not shooting for that accolade for him personally but this very convo was sparked by KDB being the latest of a string of his peers showering him with extreme praise.

Hence the question.
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The post I responded to was from Feb though?

I Didn't see what De Bruyne said.
 
Raumdeuterz said:
The very definition of “I know fuck all about football”.
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I mean, how silly can one be? We know Dan loves to say shocking stuff just to get reactions, but come on.

Mousa was unbelievable and it's a travesty we didn't win anything with him in our side. Absolute beast with ballerina feet, as Dier put it. I really wish he'd stayed with us a couple more years.
 
Jaynola said:
I mean, how silly can one be? We know Dan loves to say shocking stuff just to get reactions, but come on.

Mousa was unbelievable and it's a travesty we didn't win anything with him in our side. Absolute beast with ballerina feet, as Dier put it. I really wish he'd stayed with us a couple more years.
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The player himself decided that he was finished at this level...... When that's the case; there's no point clinging to the dream any longer.
 
Jaynola said:
I mean, how silly can one be? We know Dan loves to say shocking stuff just to get reactions, but come on.

Mousa was unbelievable and it's a travesty we didn't win anything with him in our side. Absolute beast with ballerina feet, as Dier put it. I really wish he'd stayed with us a couple more years.
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He was pretty poor in his final season for us. He left at the right time. Our issue was we did no prior planning in preparation for that particular day.
 
Starks said:
He was pretty poor in his final season for us. He left at the right time. Our issue was we did no prior planning in preparation for that particular day.
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His final season was all of like a handful of games before he hurt his ankle(?) and was out until January I believe. And as far as leaving at the right time, there was reporting around that time that he, like CE, were leaving a year later than they would have liked and thought they had agreed to leave.
 
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