Barca vs Villareal: Review: Dembele Coming Out

     When Dembele left the pitch at halftime with an assist, 4 dribbles and 41 passes, I wasn't surprised. The best part: Ousmane was flying all around the pitch, covering ground, flying into tackles, taking the ball off of Villareal...he was going on run after run up the right wing, marauding at will and keeping Villareal pinned into their own half.
     Already, at halftime, I knew this was the greatest match Dembele had played in his young Barca career: he was simply all around spectacular. He was combining with Messi time and time again, continuing their blistering path from the PSV match (too bad it took an injury to Suarez to create this combination play...last year it was there in flashes if you watch the matches).
    And, in complete destruction of the myth of Coutinho being the better of the two at Barca, Dembele lost the ball a lot less than Coutinho in both of the last two matches (since Coutinho's return from injury), he was taking fewer dumb shots as Coutinho is addicted to, he wasn't making as many dumb passes either. Dembele was picking up the slack for Coutinho, both the last two matches and in the Inter Milan match.
    It's just now, with these eye-popping stats and an all around "shut the fuck up" performance by Dembele, the media not only must now follow the "shut the fuck up" edict, they should actually take every word back. They should feel ashamed for going after such a young, developing player for being a total, out of this world talent, for being young and inexperienced and thrust into a country and club that are both exclusive, elitist and a tad standoffish. No wonder it took Dembele time to get into the mix, it really was up to Messi.
    Once Messi decided to get off of his ass and stop being mean-spirited in both his negative body language on the pitch and in helping a teammate acclimate off of it (whenever Ousmane made a bad pass, was offside, or gave it away, or generally, didn't do what Messi wanted, Messi would often pout or throw his arms in anger, while ignoring Suarez's awful play at the same time, tolerating one over the other was a bad example for Ousmane and made him sulk in reaction, isolated on the right or left wing. Suarez would also display the negativity at a worse clip). He needed to go pursue Ousmane, befriend him, force upon him the nature of Barca, give him all the help he needs....and it seems Messi has finally been doing that.

Ousmane, toying with Pedraza, again...and again...and again

...and again...

     As someone who's watched Messi's every move since his career began, I can tell you 100% that Messi didn't like Dembele until the last few weeks.  Messi had to do this for the sake of Dembele's career or we may never have known how good Ousmane would be at Barcelona. We still have that chance, that maybe...just maybe, after all of this hard work and upward trajectory that a big injury or a Valverde mismanagement, or a rift between the horrific manager and the young Frenchman could jeopardize all of this.
     But, I think not.

     Dembele cannot be taken out of the team and should've never been in the first place. It was an absolute spit in the face to a player who had saved his club, saved Valverde's ass from having to answer horrible questions after bad losses or draws and that merciful grace for Valverde's job was almost exclusively thanks to Dembele's goals or assists (we all know about how important his goals have been, but his assists are picking up big time, especially in the case of Cultural Leonesa, which would've been an infamous 0-0 draw until Ousmane's ridiculous cross was met by fellow countryman Clement Lenglet's forehead, or his assist against PSV that gave us the victory, or the assist today against Villareal which gave us the extremely important first goal...only ten or fifteen minutes after the Yellow Submarine had hit the post themselves!).

       And, instead of thanking Ousmane for his services by keeping him in the team, he punished him, and threw him away like a piece of pooh covered tissue.
       Unless Ousmane has a catastrophic injury (which won't be happening), the feelings of being ostracized by Valverde, of being a pariah in his own club and new home city, the mis-characterization by the media of him cutting a moody figure: all of that is going to be gone, little by little.
       After Today's performance and with the help and support of Messi and co., there's nothing Ousmane cannot do in a Barcelona uniform, especially with that collection of talent around him.          Simply put, every time he's on the ball I drop everything and stare at him in wonder and wait patiently for the goods...Messi, Suarez, Ronaldinho, Neymar, Henry, Kluivert and Samuel Eto'o are the only attackers in Barca history I've seen that I feel that way about (maybe that proves how long I've been alive)...I felt that way about Iniesta and Xavi in midfield, Busquets as well, of course... yet, the 21 year old World Cup winner gives you that same feeling that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. That yes...he could pass that ball through three people, yes he can dribble through that sea of opponents, yes he can keep that ball with four guys surrounding him...yes ....yes ...YES HE CAN....
    His man of the match performance today was stunning, with Messi and Dembele combining at will, using every corner kick as a studied, practiced set piece, organized to the point it hearkened back to the Xavi, Iniesta, Messi

short corner kick routines of the past, something wholly Barca, through and through. It was fantastic to see that....it indicates Messi and Dembele are hunkering down together on the training ground and coming up with these things, communicating, thinking together, developing that chemistry that we saw unreal flashes of the season previous.
      We know Dembele and Coutinho have developed a chemistry, as infrequently as we've seen it this season (they've barely played more than 6 or 7 matches together), they've still combined for one stunning goal in the earlier PSV match, a goal Dembele turned into a spellbinding masterclass moment of dribbling, finishing and striking from distance. Against the Yellow Submarine today, though, Coutinho looks a bit rusty as he gets back from injury, yet as he does, look for him and Ousmane (in the next few matches) to have a meeting of minds in the middle of the pitch, both cutting inside.
      Dembele's greatest display today was what he did in the passing game: with a Barca career high 75 passes total, at a 77% completion rate (most of the missed passes were from crossing attempts, as he was only officially dispossessed TWICE all match, the same number of times Alba, Coutinho and Messi lost the ball. This continues his trend from the PSV match of only 1 dispossession all match, his lazy through ball to Messi that rolled out of bounds). He was second in touches for the match, with a whopping 107 (only 2nd to Rakitic at 118 touches), definitely his highest as a Barca player.           What is fantastic, and that nobody pays attention to until Barca collapses in the latter stages of the Champions League, is that this takes so much more pressure off of Messi over the course of a long season. With every touch comes the chance for being fouled, with every touch brings the likelihood of wearing your body down with niggling injuries that take months to get rid of. Instead, with every touch and run, Dembele takes that pressure off of the Greatest Player of All Time just a little bit more.
     The World Cup winner then had 3 shots total, 1 that was on target but was blocked as it was on its way into the net or to Messi's feet, another blistering shot on target that forced a save, and a wayward shot that was off target, showing his constant presence in the final third.
      Ousmane then had his best ever dribbling match in a Barca uniform, completing 8 dribbles out of 10 attempts, for an 80% completion rate (Messi at only 3, Coutinho at 4). He was constantly toying with Villareal, including one sequence early in the match by the touchline where he danced and juked and jived Villareal left back Pedraza into the ground numerous times within the same control of the ball....it never left his feet until Dembele wanted it to...you can tell Messi has told him to use his constant and brilliant ball control to his advantage and be more patient.
      His propensity to give the ball away hasn't been from a lack of quality in the pass, it's always been about patience and waiting for those runs to develop, or the decoy run to take defenders away from the following run in-behind, usually the ones that always have a wide open shot at goal thanks to the unselfish first run removing defenders from that vacated space. We are now seeing that patience from Dembele, although he can still try to force sliding, on the ground crosses into the box without much chance for completion.
     Defensively, he showed up, too, only being dribbled past 1 time, and 2 out of 3 tackles not even showing all of the defensive work and hustle he was up to. He was frequently beating all-comers to a loose ball, including one notable moment where he created a counter attack from pure hustle: the ball had ground to a halt right on the touchline and Dembele, who was at a positional disadvantage in getting there, outpaced his rival by a mile showing such unbelievable acceleration, then scooped the ball up and over the in-coming challenge and raced up the right wing, creating a devastating counter out of pure hard work.
     The kid is getting it now.
     His assist was based off of his own patience: another touchline juke and jive party where he blasted cross after cross off of Pedraza's back, only to recover the ball, think about it, switch to his left foot and then hammer in a perfect ball for Pique to head into the goalkeeper's hand, a bitch slap that could never keep that header out of goal. Gerard Pique

Pique cannot stop scoring goals, with 4 on the season and 2 in the last 2 matches.

is on pace for his greatest offensive season, with 4 goals and 1 assist, and being involved in 2 goals with Ousmane Dembele already this season. This gives Dembele 4 assists on the season, currently, (an assist in his last two matches) with all 4 coming in his last 7 matches for Barcelona (since October 28th against Real Madrid, at least one in each competition (playing as on and off as he has, that's an accomplishment) with 2 match winning, or saving goals that fetched 4 total points also coming within that time).
    Barcelona weren't thoroughly dominant in this match, additionally, they weren't always on top, but it was all in our control and after the hijinks and horrible slapstick defending that gave Moreno an early shot off of the post, we buckled down and controlled Villareal. Villareal still had chances, it seems the opposition gets them at will when the Pique-Lenglet partnership is in the middle. This is why having a player like Dembele start every match is important: when the spine of our team aren't at their best (Ter Stegen, Pique, Busquets Messi), we need Dembele and Coutinho to pick up the slack, something you would expect from such players who are obviously the future, and at times, current world beaters that they are.
    Luckily, Valverde gave Carles Alena some well deserved time on the pitch and the kid made no mistake about putting on a show. He came on to the pitch and latched on to an UNREAL and ABSOLUTELY Draconian assist from Messi that went through a few defender's legs, out Fornals' butthole and laid at the feet of Alena like a slice of pizza waiting to be eaten. And, for his first ever Barcelona senior goal in La Liga (his first was in the Copa Del Rey vs Hercules on November 30th 2016), he gobbled it up and chipped Asenjo with a priceless chip, that the Villareal keeper was lucky to even get a chunk of shoulder to as it looped over everyone and Sir Isaac Newton'd its way into the corner of the net.
     A definitive performance that was pretty much exactly how TalkFCB predicted it would be, a measured 2-0.
     We saw some brilliant interplay, too, I feel like this is the Barca we need every match. If we play like we did today (minus the early and rather lucky not to be scored on insanity of our defending), with Arthur back in the team and either Sergi Roberto or an in form and actually 50% healthy Ivan Rakitic, we will carve teams to pieces. Our midfield was slower paced without the invention and ingenuity of Arthur, or the dribbling and runs of Roberto, but Rakitic did a job today and saved some face, but not much. The dood needs to be shut down for the next 3 matches, or he's going to get another huge injury just like Umtiti. I'm telling you that here first, and just like I did when I said he would re-injure Umtiti, I hope I'm wrong....but I know if we let Valverde do this to our club, to our squad, I will be right.
     Also, is it just me or does it seem like we're going to allow a goal EVERY TIME a ball bounces or is deflected, in our box?

RATINGS:

GK TER STEGEN (7.5): Luckily, for his sake, he only had to make 2 tame saves that were right down the throat, for once we give this guy a match off! Yay! He only had to make 17 total passes, as well, which is fantastic, we need this guy fresh. Because without him....well...do I have to say anymore?
 
RB SEMEDO (7.2): Nelsinho didn't make much happen going forward, with 0 key passes and 0 shots, but he shut it all down behind Ousmane Dembele and combining well with the Frenchman. He only made 1 mistake and he came rushing back to shut that down immediately, showing that he is the most underrated right back in the world at recovery play. Truly, some of the things we've seen Semedo do in the tackle, in a Barca uniform, have been nothing but savage, with 90 yard lung-busting runs back to shut down a goal in the 6 yard box with a leaping, perfectly timed tackle being common.

CB PIQUE (8.8): Pique was fantastic today, although he let Moreno have more time in the box on the shot that hit the post. Pique needs to be quicker to shutting things down and clearing loose balls in the box, but his assurance on the ball, his speed in anticipation, his clinical and underrated aerial ability (Pique was 100% tonight in the air, giving us the dominance that everyone doesn't know about: Barcelona have been the #1 team in Aerial Duels since the beginning of the season and have never relinquished that place to second place, and far taller, Roma) were stupendous tonight. Then, he notched his 4th goal of the season from an otherworldly Dembele cross. He even found time to get into nonstop histrionics and hilarities with Villareal's Gerard Moreno.

CB LENGLET (6.7): Lenglet is all over the place...he is either devastatingly awesome for us, or he's shocking. He had another yellow card for an unnecessarily stupid high boot, putting our entire game plan at risk with his absurd and frequent bookings. After the worst Dembele giveaway of the match, he even stupidly ripped a Villareal player down, sooooo lucky to not get sent off. He is scattershot at times back there, ruining Pique's positional sense and forcing his Catalan counterpart to fly around to put fires out all over the Barca box, which then disrupts the organization of that back four, especially when without the recovery speed and brutal tackling ability of Semedo to aid these risky defensive tactics. It's almost as if the second Umtiti had returned from injury, Clement shit himself dry and is now only just realizing he can play well again, it's ok, Samuel is going to have to sit for a while longer. Let's hope he returns to his best, which was the match he played against Tottenham (a match in which we STILL allowed 2 goals). When the ball bounces in our box, Lenglet is usually the last to react, the first to screw up or back off, and the first to turn his head as the ball goes into the back of the net. He must, simply must react better and quicker.

LB ALBA (7.0): Jordi was creative on the ball, looping in crosses and making runs, but he wasn't at his Alba-esque greatest, which is just fine, it's a long season, which begs the question: Why don't we ever rest this guy? He tirelessly runs and goes on the threat of runs, nonstop....I can't even count how many times he goes on runs where he doesn't even receive the ball or is really looked at...yet, there he is again, when needed to receive the ball from a brilliant Coutinho, Messi or Busquets through ball to him up the wing to cutback. He executed one of these brilliant cutbacks to Messi, who narrowly didn't score after an Asenjo save. Alba had 3 key passes in his sleep, today and a trio of interceptions defensively.

CDM BUSQUETS (7.8): Sergio wasn't perfect tonight, but he was classy, showing his usual passing range and covering so much ground, making up for the still recovering Rakitic. Worked well with Vidal at times and shielded the back four alright. Busquets gave the ball away a few times shockingly, but recovered to shield and protect every time. Was the subject of a violent, ridiculous challenge from Pablo Fornals.

RCM RAKITIC (6.6): He had a good shot that was close after some brilliant build-up play from Messi and Dembele, yet it is quite obvious this guy shouldn't be playing, let alone going for 90 minutes a match. The pure insanity of Valverde subbing off a rusty, but healthier Coutinho over a ragged, out of sorts Rakitic is almost pure sadism...the fact he then took off Vidal for Alena was just as full of lunacy. Why couldn't he just sub Rakitic off for Alena and call it good? Does he enjoy watching Rakitic barely able to breathe? Because I don't enjoy Rakitic making 105 passes without a single one that was key. Rakitic is one of our best players, WHEN FULLY FIT....he must be rested or we can risk what happened to Samuel Umtiti.

LCM VIDAL (7.3): Shouldn't have been subbed off when he was, fully deserved 90 minutes. Wasn't as intense offensively as he was in his 2 shots cleared off of the line performance against PSV, but drove the team forward, battled in midfield and kept everything clean. Arturo could've been involved more with only 39 passes in 71 minutes (compared to Ousmane Dembele's 41 passes in 45 minutes), but he had 3 out of 5 tackles in a combative midfield, with 3 fouls committed and 2 interceptions.

RF DEMBELE (9.7): Dembele was comprehensive: 107 touches, 75 passes total, 77% completion rate, 4 key passes, 1 assist, 8 dribbles, 2 tackles, only being dispossessed twice. Greatest match in a Barca uniform. His two best matches for us have both been against Villareal...interesting...cannot wait for next time we play them. We are seeing the Dembele that ravaged the Bundesliga and Champions League in his only season at Dortmund, the ultra creative, languid and football enjoying player who lit up Europe with 22 assists in all competitions, including a hat trick of assists in his first season in the Champions League and 6 total in the campaign). But, even more he's maturing into an all around special player, capable of producing anything on the pitch at any time. That is a rare talent money could never buy. His price tag will seem small at the end of all of this, I assure you. All he needs to do is maintain a consistent presence on the ball and make good decisions with it, which usually means using his preternatural ball control ability and outrageous final ball quality, he could join Messi and Suarez in the pantheon of Barca greats if he keeps making good decisions on the ball.

LF COUTINHO (6.6): Was listless, tired, weary, dragging himself into dribbles he didn't believe he could complete. Only 1 shot off target, 0 key passes and 62 passes completed at an 89% completion rate. Coutinho was boring today.

CF MESSI (8.7): Messi wasn't at his most spine-tingling, but even at his worst, at his most frustrated and out of form, he can produce moments of pure genius, such as his speech impediment causing through ball to Alena...one of his greatest assists this season in a career full of them, such was the perfection, such was the class...That gives him his 7th La Liga assist already, taking his tally to 9 overall in all comps for Barcelona this season. At only 40 passes and 62 touches overall, Messi's influence was designed to be in the periphery, a smart move, either by Messi himself or the coaching staff to lower the destruction on Messi's body over the course of a full season. It is extremely important that matches like this occur: where Messi isn't expected to do everything, where he can still contribute LSD trip inducing assists and goals at the drop of a hat and where Messi isn't continuously expected to dribble and get fouled for us to succeed. For once in this Dembele / Coutinho era, MESSI TRUSTED THEM IMPLICITLY and backed away...letting them do their thing and that may be the biggest contribution Messi made today.

Subs:

Alena's goal was truly special! Messi's assist only made it one of the greatest debut La Liga goals of all time

CM ALENA (9.0): How could I not give him a high rating when he comes on and does THAT? Meeting a brilliant Messi through ball and then chipping it over Asenjo, like he'd done it 50 times before? Alena and Arthur are a big part of our Barca midfield future, along with Riqui Puig. It was fantastic to see Carles get minutes, but then do something with them and impress Messi.

LF MALCOM (?): Can't give a rating since he had 1 shot off target and 1 total pass....simply didn't have enough time to get acclimated, but what I saw wasn't class, Malcolm looks out of form. He needs minutes desperately.


CRAZIEST STAT:

- A Very Foul heavy, rugged match that involved 17 acts of competitive violence against Barcelona from Villareal and 4 yellow cards to the Yellow Submarine, 1 to Gonzalez, Ruiz and Pedraza (3/4 of their backline) and Pablo Fornals for the aforementioned nasty tackle on Busquets. Barcelona displayed some of their own, with 9 fouls and 2 yellow cards, well above their usual average. With 26 fouls and 6 yellow cards combined, this was an extremely heavy and sometimes violent affair, with Dembele and Busquets (who was fouled 4 times...something we must keep an eye on, such as actually resting the guy with Oriol Busquets) writhing on the ground worryingly on a few occasions.