At the Parc des Princes,
Before rushing headlong into the current debate concerning him, let’s start with a banality about Ousmane Dembélé: this man is an unfinished work of art.
Once again omnipresent against Rennes, Wednesday, in the semi-final of the Coupe de France, the former Barcelona player is nevertheless capable of wasting the gold he has in his feet when concluding his actions, like this festival of dribbling in the Rennes area ended with a sausage sent to the Parisian ring road. He sometimes reminds us of a genius violinist who couldn’t help but end his recital by taking out his Vuvuzela to destroy everything.
Asked at a post-match press conference about his former player’s shortcomings in finishing, Julien Stéphan did what all Dembouz coaches have always done, he preferred to keep the positive: “When we talk about Ousmane we talk about always with its faults. I always answer about his qualities. Because I find him to be an extraordinary player. In terms of imbalance, in dribbling, in the ability to create space, he is an exceptional player. If he had a higher quality of finishing, he would perhaps be Ballon d’Or today. »
Get out on the axis, a risky bet
His immense qualities are known to everyone and the Breton coach summed them up perfectly. Destabilizing as possible, Dembélé is an outstanding dribbler capable of putting any defender on the buttocks, when he has not first placed them on the emergency stop strip on the right side, where his speed catches the eye of the opposing full-backs. . But then, since he has been doing wonders on his wing since the start of the season, what has happened to Luis Enrique so that he decides to change his position to give him the keys to the game in the axis of the Parisian attack, behind the two attackers (Mbappé and another, of your choice)?
This was the case for the first time on the Anoeta side, against Real Sociedad, but also last Sunday at the Vélodrome against OM. With, each time, good and less good when it comes to taking stock of skills. If this positioning allows PSG to have greater density in the axis of the field and offers the player greater freedom of movement, it also exposes him to loss of balls which can prove fatal in this part of the field .
This was not seen on Wednesday as the Rennais seemed incapable of offering anything to recover the ball, but will it be the same against a Barça who is much more playful than the Bretons? Above all, depriving one of his greatest strengths, his speed, on the right side, can seem damaging for the team.
A long-term idea by Luis Enrique
Yet, in Luis Enrique’s mind, the debate is over before it even begins. “Ousmane Dembélé is a technically superior player, almost unplayable with both feet. We don’t know if he is right-handed or left-handed, he explained. I believe that with his interior position we are approaching the best version of Ousmane. I don’t worry about his last touch before reaching the goal. It doesn’t matter to me. He will improve. He is improving and scoring a lot of goals in training. So, it’s not a problem. What he generates, all these chances, is very positive for the team because he is almost unstoppable for his opponents. »
According to our colleagues at The Team, this repositioning in the axis, in a role of false number 9, is not a fad that the Spanish coach suddenly came up with one fine morning when he woke up. He had it in mind even before Dembélé joined PSG and had spoken to the player about it to convince him to sign in the capital, knowing the player’s preference for this position.
During what still remains today as the best season of his career, at Dortmund, in 2016-2017, it was in this role of number 10 behind two attackers that the former Rennais played with Thomas Tuchel. And at the time, the boy displayed much more attractive stats than currently (10 goals and 21 assists compared to 1 goal and 10 assists this season). If, for the moment, we cannot yet say that this decision by Luis Enrique has completely convinced the Parisian followers, we are only asking to see this best version of himself, 100% violin and without vuvuzela.