Dele makes a statement | Page 5 | Vital Football

Dele makes a statement

Even with his barren couple of years. Is there anyone still playing remotely close to his stats? I remember at one point he had better ratios than Gerrard and Lampard.

He just lost his way, its still there and we need to start putting him back in those positions.


Is it? Are you willing to gamble the club's future on pitch success on it?
 
We have zero useful creative attacking midfielders when Dele doesn't play. To the point Kane had to start trying to assist himself. Ndombele played that role a bit but I don't think it's his best position, and Gio doesn't seem to have the vision which is weird as some had said that's what he was bought for. Lamela is OK at it in a pinch. Lucas less so.

Dele might not be as good KDB or even Eriksen but he's the best we've got at feeding through balls. He'd have a hatful of assists for our last 5 games if the attackers were clinical... and it's been a season where without him we've created fuck all in most games.

I personally think unless we can get a top tier creator we need to persevere with Dele and get him back to his best.


DM and Dele. It's been a problem all along. But you are correct based on existing assets. We need him playing because Ndombele OR Gio need to play with someone like Dele.
 
Given that at his peak he was doing this and also in many games where it made the difference, being a goal scorer is the greatest strength of all; he has an eye for goal., and they will flow again.

I will add it to the strengths list. Kind of looking like his strengths outweigh his weaknesses as not suggested earlier. Unless it can be proved otherwise. !!
 
What are his strengths. ?

Stamina and ground coverage.
Technique ( this might be debatable ) but not for me.
Football intelligence ( he sees the picture).
Can weight a pass.
Can be a cool finisher.
Movement.
Agility.
Good in the air
Tenacious.
Experience.
Arrogance and flair.
Goal scoring ability.


Please add to this, I'm sure there are more.

Then we can look at his weaknesses to see if they outweigh the strengths !!

Updated
 
Fair play to him for even posting that .
He didn’t have to . He could have slunk off to the beach and said nothing .
He was dignified when all and sundry were slagging him off , got his head down , never moaned once , applied himself and when he got the chance , he put in a couple of man of the match performances .
I applaud him for that .
He put Ndombele to shame , his contribution to the team was great .

Fair play to the man . He has shown a lot of character , his post reinforces that in my eyes .

everything else is getting bogged down in opinions . :wahey:
 
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Well let's debate this guys. The consensus will prevail.
Ball control....he can be exceptional at this and pull off audacious and almost impossible moves. It's part of his make up. Some attempts don't come off I agree but I'm not convinced it's a weakness.

His passing is lazy ? I will need a bit more flesh on the bones for that one. My perception is that Dele looks for the forward pass if he can.

Hasn't got a lot of pace....He is not slow either, in fact in full flight he covers the ground quickly IMO. In the position he plays and the way he plays I'm not sure his pace is a weakness.

Not great dribbling skills....we have seen many nutmegs and him creating room to play a pass so I'm not convinced this is a weakness.

Holds onto the ball too long is already on my list as is poor judgement.

A lot of his passes don't make the distance due to poor concentration. That means lazy.

The nutmeg is used because he doesn't have the speed to get past anyone one on one. It catches them off guard which gives him a few yards head start.

There is a difference between acceleration and speed NRD. He is athletic but he isn't fast. He is a slow twitch man every day of the week.
 
We have zero useful creative attacking midfielders when Dele doesn't play. To the point Kane had to start trying to assist himself. Ndombele played that role a bit but I don't think it's his best position, and Gio doesn't seem to have the vision which is weird as some had said that's what he was bought for. Lamela is OK at it in a pinch. Lucas less so.

Dele might not be as good KDB or even Eriksen but he's the best we've got at feeding through balls. He'd have a hatful of assists for our last 5 games if the attackers were clinical... and it's been a season where without him we've created fuck all in most games.

I personally think unless we can get a top tier creator we need to persevere with Dele and get him back to his best.

I would say Ndombele is the best midfielder for vision.

The amount of forward passes he makes but the forward players can't control the ball is insane.
 
I said it earlier.
This is PR guff that came out after SAF balled him out in public.
He has been sucked into his own marketing machine over the last two or three seasons.
In saying that, if that's what its taken for him to get his head right - so be it.
He has done no worse for us than any of the other muppets at the club. and has many things we desperately need in a midfielder.
Lets hope he stays and improves and becomes the player many think he can actually be.
 
I remember seeing Rebrov on his debut. He took the ball and made this pass that flummoxed both their defence and our attack.
He looked distraught.
From that moment on I knew he was doomed.
Everyone in the media said that Terry Venables was ten years ahead of every player in the squad .
Saved him a lot of aggro .
Smart move on his part .
 
A lot of his passes don't make the distance due to poor concentration. That means lazy.

The nutmeg is used because he doesn't have the speed to get past anyone one on one. It catches them off guard which gives him a few yards head start.

There is a difference between acceleration and speed NRD. He is athletic but he isn't fast. He is a slow twitch man every day of the week.

I concede Dele does not have awesome explosive pace over a short distance. He does not have the build for it. But he is not cumbersome slow either. Also he will still be running fast after the fast twitchers have blown their gaskets. He has found a way to make room with trickery.
If he was slow it would be a weakness but he isn't and the position he plays doesn't depend on it.
It's scraping the barrel to use a lack of pace as a weakness.

As for his passing, many times commentators praise him for quick passing and through balls with perfect weight. Some are underhit, some are overhit but that's common even at top level. He at least tries it and has licence to because the coaches know he can do it. If it goes wrong, invariably we have plenty to defend it as its in the opponents half. He is a flair player and will try things others either can't do or are scared to.
 
I concede Dele does not have awesome explosive pace over a short distance. He does not have the build for it. But he is not cumbersome slow either. Also he will still be running fast after the fast twitchers have blown their gaskets. He has found a way to make room with trickery.
If he was slow it would be a weakness but he isn't and the position he plays doesn't depend on it.
It's scraping the barrel to use a lack of pace as a weakness.

As for his passing, many times commentators praise him for quick passing and through balls with perfect weight. Some are underhit, some are overhit but that's common even at top level. He at least tries it and has licence to because the coaches know he can do it. If it goes wrong, invariably we have plenty to defend it as its in the opponents half. He is a flair player and will try things others either can't do or are scared to.

If he plays as a AM his lack of speed and acceleration is an issue in certain games.

Think back to the Semi Final against Chelsea a few years back.

We had Dele, Eriksen, Kane. We couldn't break them down because of the lack of pace and the lack of ability to go past players.

Hazard showed us what is needed in the big games.

It is an issue dependent on his position and game quality.
 
I think people also forget that Dele is / was a natural long distance runner. One of only 5 Prem players to hit the 13km mark in one of the seasons from memory. He wore teams down by his constant running and there was no better player in that last 15 mins when everyone is feeling the pain. His pressing was immense until Poch burned him out and the soft tissue injuries.

We must keep Dele fresh and rotated. Perhaps even use him only in the league for a while.