Tottenham Player of the Match: Mousa Dembélé

Something of a rarity occurred in the 16th minute of Bournemouth’s visit to Tottenham on Saturday: Mousa Dembélé scored a goal.

It was the Belgian international’s first goal for Tottenham since January of 2016, and was the first to break away at Bournemouth’s defense in what became a 4-0 victory for the home side.

A single goal perhaps isn’t enough to grant Dembélé player of the match honors. Harry Kane also scored on his first full start since his return from an ankle injury. Heung-min Son continued a remarkable scoring streak, one that suggested that this Spurs side have genuine depth. And Vincent Janssen scored his first ever Premier League goal from open play.

Yes, it was an unusual sight. Indeed, it came only minutes after Dembélé should have scored from outside the area with a finely placed shot. The reasons we would single out Dembélé have little to do with such efforts though.

The fact is those shots were the only ones he notched during the whole game. Shooting isn’t his job. Why would it need to be when Kane, Son, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli sit just ahead of his position in midfield? Those four players — plus Janssen — contributed 20 of Tottenham’s 24 shots in the match.

What Dembélé’s goal does do is add an easily digestible digit to what are fantastic — and virtually unquantifiable — contributions each and every game.

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Dembélé’s value lies deeper in the pitch, just behind the attack, just ahead of the defense and just beside a devoted midfield destroyer like Eric Dier or Victor Wanyama.

From that pivot point, Dembélé breaks up attacks, drives play forward with exceptional dribbling skills and — perhaps most importantly — recycles possession in the opposition’s half.

Against a team like Bournemouth, one who will have no choice but to sit deep and deny Tottenham space while they wait for their slim chances on the other end, this role is invaluable. The central midfield pair need to recover the ball after possession is lost and distribute it back forward to the players most capable of doing something with it.

Dembélé performs that thankless task with a aplomb. He’s rarely awarded a goal or even an assist for his efforts, but without his contribution his teammates might not be quite as good as their own jobs.

Consider the man who Dembélé replaced in the side last season. Ryan Mason was Mauricio Pochettino’s first choice for that pivot role when the Argentine arrived at the club in 2014. With Nabil Bentaleb alongside him, Mason was supposed to have the freedom to drive play forward and keep the ball in the opposition’s half.

Mason, however, isn’t in the same mold as Dembélé. He wants to score, and consequently brings the ball forward with more selfish intentions. Goals rarely resulted and, what’s worse, his efforts left acres of space in behind him that Bentaleb was not able to cover all on his own.

Dembélé, in contrast, recognizes that his game needs to exist in three dimensions. He needs to be able to track back, surge forward and distribute all within the same moment. Tottenham would be a far worse team without a player like Dembélé at its heart.

Now, there is such a thing as a player who does what Dembélé does so well and who also scores. Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba played that kind of role at Juventus under Antonio Conte. Joshua Kimmich is growing into the same type of player at Bayern Munich.

Next: Tottenham Player Ratings: 4-0 demolition over Bournemouth

Those kinds of players are exceedingly rare however. It is impractical for Tottenham to hope they can find one on the transfer market, or even hope to create a player within the Academy. For now they can hope that Dembélé will be around for a few more years and that, when he retires, Harry Winks is able to fold into the same role with ease.