I may be putting mself up for shooting down but.......

[sunburywhite]

Is Dembele the player he started off being or has he gone backwards?

To me, he is collecting the ball with his back to goal and drifting infield too much. He is not running at defenders and causing problems

As soon as Kakuta came on he was running at players from a wide position and looking like a handful

[clint23]

Well, here is the problem with Dembele, he is a striker, and a striker needs to score goals. He is gifted, he is great at holding the ball, but sometimes he does too much. Kakuta looked sharper and faster than him

[CaliforniaFFC]

Dembele does not like the physical buffeting he was getting today from the Blackburn THUGS and he was also denied the space he usually likes to exploit - off his shoulder and the 5 yards of penetration to draw another defender. I think Kakuta came on at the right time - fresh legs, game stretched and Blackburn tiring defensively. However, he does look like an exciting young player.

[MJG]

I did post during the game he was having a right go, the toughest he has looked.
But is he as effective as he should be? I don't believe he is a striker at all, but has he played well yet when moved on To wing?
Is he going to turn into a class player or is he going to Steed mark 2, lots of skill but no real end product.
Saying all that it is his first season and let's see how he shapes up next year, at least he will know how physical it is over here.

[WhiteJC]

Well, here is the problem with Dembele, he is a striker, and a striker needs to score goals. He is gifted, he is great at holding the ball, but sometimes he does too much. Kakuta looked sharper and faster than him

Dembele is not a striker

[White Noise]

Well, here is the problem with Dembele, he is a striker, and a striker needs to score goals. He is gifted, he is great at holding the ball, but sometimes he does too much. Kakuta looked sharper and faster than him

Dembele is not a striker

Somebody tell Fulham that -

http://www.fulhamfc.com/MatchAndTeam/PlayerProfiles/1stTeamPlayers.aspx

[clint23]

Well, here is the problem with Dembele, he is a striker, and a striker needs to score goals. He is gifted, he is great at holding the ball, but sometimes he does too much. Kakuta looked sharper and faster than him

Dembele is not a striker

Somebody tell Fulham that -

http://www.fulhamfc.com/MatchAndTeam/PlayerProfiles/1stTeamPlayers.aspx

I see more Dempsey as a striker than Dembele, but Sparky starts with him upfront, not on the wing

[ron]

Dembele is a player of great quality and comparatively tender years. He won't be going backwards for a good many years yet !

Playing behind the front line, he doesn't have to be judged on goalscoring alone.

Come to think of it, AJ is in the front line ......and he doesn't score very often...

[Basil]

Not sure the quality of our pitch of late (or lack of quality) does Dembele any favours, hardly conducive to dribbling which is his main asset.

[Boggers]

Personally I feel this post is a bit of a knee jerk reaction. Admittedly Moussa didn't really have a good game today but as previously stated Blackburn made it very difficult for him, not his type of game.

But I don't think that detracts from the season that he's had. He can make something out of nothing and there aren't many players like that. We'll do well to hang on to the lad. In the meantime "O Lay O Lay O Lay O Lay..."

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

That boy is class,  but it has become  very over crowded up top and he as he is the new boy, he is unsure where to put himself.  He is also getting a bit of an understanding with Duff which is a good thing, taking him off is probably not doing much for his confidence. 

[Lighthouse]

Play Dembele as a wide player on the left snd you will see him shine and become more involved. Fact is we have so many player who can play wide. But NO CENTRAL STRIKERS. Bar BZ and Guddy.

[BarryP]

Wasn't Dembele involved in setting up both of Duff's goals?  I think he is top shelf and will only get better with time.

[Mr Fulham]

Well, here is the problem with Dembele, he is a striker, and a striker needs to score goals. He is gifted, he is great at holding the ball, but sometimes he does too much. Kakuta looked sharper and faster than him

Dembele is not a striker

And not a midfielder. He's something in between, just like Deuce. But he's definitely no goalscorer!

I don't think he's gone backwards, but he had to play a tuff programme over the last few weeks. He might need a rest or at least a sub appearance. It's the same problem Dempsey has. No, not because he look exhausted (eh, Don? :down_under:) - merely because I reckon he really is.

I don't think they actually need a rest because we only have one more fixture this month, so plenty of time for them to refresh the batteries.

Play Dembele as a wide player on the left snd you will see him shine and become more involved. Fact is we have so many player who can play wide. But NO CENTRAL STRIKERS. Bar BZ and Guddy.

I have to respectfully disagree here, sir. Guddy is not a central striker but was used as one at Stoke, that is why he left them.
He's another one from the "No striker/No midfielder"-department.

[HatterDon]

I think Dembele is a goal-scoring winger, NOT a central striker -- think C. Ronaldo and Duff's favorite Frenchman for examples.

To be very fair to M. Moussa, Blackburn's game plan seemed to be to neutralize his central forays. Pretty stupid since it resulted in more business on the right wing with Duff, AJ and Baird.

Check out my View from South Texas and see all of my idiotically inaccurate [but entertainingly entrancing] comments on the match.

[JohnKovacs]

To me, it seems like Dembele runs hot and cold. He'll play well for a few games, and then suddenly disappear for a few. He definitely needs to work on his consistency. He's kind of like Clint in regards to this, only worse IMO. Both need to focus on their consistency.

[King_Crud]

I thought he was good, I was commenting to my mate how i think he's improving out of sight. I think he would be best with a striker or two making runs behind the defence that he can slide a ball through to, rather than AJ running the channels down the sides.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

he had no room to move as blackburn crowded the midfield so much players were almost falling over each other ,with all our players back this is almost like a new team and Sparky has to work out who plays where and when,Dembele has only played a dozen games for us,give him a chance and he will come good :clap_hands: :clap_hands:

[AlFayedsChequebook]

1)1st season in England where he has had less space and time on the ball coupled with tough tackling.
2) Bad injury early in the season
3) We look a much better team with him involved

[sipwell]

I am reading my review of a couple of months back (when we were buying him). He is a hard worker on the midfield and I think he tires the opposition quite a lot. Moreover, as the opposing manager will probably tell his lads that they have to stick to Dembélé and make his game impossible, he creates space for other players... Playing with his back to the goal isn't that bad then, in my opinion.