Dembélé’s Game Limits Tottenham
By Ryan Wrenn
Tottenham walked off of Southampton’s pitch the victors on Saturday, but even with the win there seemed to be something off.
By wide consensus, Mousa Dembélé had a great game for Tottenham. He completed the highest number of accurate passes of anyone on the pitch – 48 – with the highest success rate – 94%. On top of that, he also diligently buffed Eric Dier’s defensive duties in deep midfield, recording three tackles and two interceptions while also recording 14 ball recoveries. That latter figure dwarfs just about anyone else on the pitch; only Southampton right-back Cédric Soares came close with 12 recoveries.
All better-than-good so far. Those are all the metrics of a talented, if one-dimensional, central midfielder. Why would we even be complaining, then?
It’s not what Dembélé did wrong on Saturday. He did a lot of things right, and there’s no use complaining about anyone’s performance in a mostly dominant 2-0 win. Rather, it’s what could have been done better in Dembélé’s position that we’re calling into question here.
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Consider that of Dembélé’s 48 passes, only 16 were deemed to be forward passes by FourFourTwo’s Opta-fueled Statszone. Almost all of those passes were short, and none resulted in a shot.
His passes overall, though numerous, were largely simple lay-offs to more creative players. The one offensive area in which Dembélé does excel – dribbling – is largely nerfed by starting him in central midfield. That didn’t stop him from still trying, but he was all-too-easily cut off and dispossessed when he did so.
Dembélé suffered five such dispossessions in the game – tied for most on the pitch with Harry Kane. Particularly in the opening twenty minutes of the first half, Dembélé was being stripped of the ball by Southampton’s midfield almost every time he went forward. Even in the more Tottenham-dominant second half, Dembélé did not register a single pass in Southampton’s defensive third.
Now, part of all of this stems from the fact that Tottenham were in large part playing a more counter-attack oriented game than they typically do, particularly in the second half as they attempted to defend their lead. Dembélé was likely assigned the rather limited role of supporting Dier in keeping Southampton’s attack – and in particular Sadio Mané – in check.
Another way of looking at this efficient performance is that Dembélé isn’t capable of much more than what he did. His immense contributions in the pressing game are a vital component to Tottenham’s overall gameplan. Those 14 ball recoveries are 14 chances that Southampton had that came to absolutely nothing – or worse. There’s no faulting the player himself for giving the team that considerable advantage.
Dembélé’s performance does beg a question though: what would the game have looked like if the Belgian were both an exceedingly good presser and even just a passable creative player? Those don’t have to be mutually exclusive skillsets.
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Imagine if even a small handful of those passes were over-the-top through balls to Dele Alli or Kane. Imagine if how much easier Southampton’s defensive line would have been to unlock had Tottenham not been forced to to make that extra pass whenever Dembélé had the ball and lacked the ability – or confidence – to do something meaningful with it.
In a team full of versatile players capable of filling multiple roles, Dembélé is one of Tottenham’s only specialists. That’s no insult, but it does call into question what the midfielder’s shelf life is on this team. What happens when Tottenham’s scouts inevitably find a player who can press the same way Dembélé does and also set up shot situations or unlock defenses? The answer is obvious, but no especially encouraging.