Tottenham’s Dembélé Starts for Belgium

By Ryan Wrenn | Jun 18, 2016

BORDEAUX, FRANCE - JUNE 10: Mousa Dembele (C) of Belgium warms up with the team during the Belgium Training Session held at Chateau du Haillan on June 10, 2016 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) /

With Belgium’s Euro 2016 hopes dented by a 2-0 loss to Italy, Tottenham star midfielder Mousa Dembélé is set to enter the fray against Ireland on Saturday.

Belgium coach Marc Wilmots elected to start a midfield of Axel Witsel and Marouane Fellaini in Monday’s match, and it was clear that such a combination wasn’t going to work.

Witsel might not have yet played for any of Europe’s big leagues, but he’s reliably plied his trade in Portugal and Russia for the past several years. He is a capable and dynamic defensive midfielder, one who deserved to start again Saturday.

The same cannot quite be said for the Manchester United man. Fellaini’s at-times-too-ambiguous positioning — is a defensive midfielder, target man or both? — actually made Italy’s defensive job easier. Without any firm tactical role, Fellaini seemed lost and unable to influence play in any meaningful way on either end of the ball.

It’s no surprise then that he was dropped in favor of Dembélé. The Tottenham midfielder enjoyed a wonderful season in the Premier League, tweaking his game to fit into Mauricio Pochettino’s unique pressing machine and surprisingly becoming one of its most vital components.

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How that translates into a system like Wilmots’ remains unclear, despite Dembélé’s increased presence in Belgium lineups. At its core, the problem comes down to Wilmots. As Jonathan Wilson expertly explained it for the Guardian, Belgium’s coach lacks the tactical nous to lead a team gilded by some of the sport’s best players — Eden Hazard, Toby Alderweireld, Thibaut Courtois — so used to the refined methods of Pochettino, José Mourinho and Diego Simeone.

So how does a player of Dembélé’s unique skillset fit into a squad without anything even closely resembling the same structure and discipline of Tottenham?

The pressing game that Dembélé so expertly embodied isn’t a solo act. While he could certainly close down members of Ireland’s midfield and attack, his movements would need to made in parallel with his teammates’ efforts in either pressing or finding space in which to receive the ball in transition.

It’s unlikely that Dembélé will find such efforts in Witsel or the players ahead of him. It’s not that they are not capable of it — Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne certainly know how to exploit space — but without months of practice and training together it’s difficult to imagine the results being as stunning as they typically are at Tottenham.

Dembélé will then have to rely on more traditional footballing moves, perhaps as a classical box-to-box midfielder. We know already how well he can perform in that role. When he’s not off the ball and closing down opponents, Dembélé is frequently the hilt of Tottenham’s sword, setting off the movements that will eventually become deadly farther up the pitch.

Again, the potential problem here is what’s ahead of him. There will be no playmakers ready to receive simple passes and make them into something more. No Christian Eriksen or Érik Lamela. Dembélé will have to rely on a trio of wingers ahead of him instead, leaving him responsible for most of the creativity in this Belgium side.

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Is that a good recipe? Probably not. While he’s a fine passer of simple balls, Dembélé isn’t prolific when setting up shots. He averaged 1.1 key passes per 90 minutes (source: WhoScored) in the Premier League last season — hardly the figures you’d want from your playmaker.

Ireland isn’t Italy, of course, and efforts such as Dembélé’s might be enough to see Belgium through their first win of Euro 2016.

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