Last week, when Rennes faced PSG in the Coup de France semi-finals, the team's captain Julien Stephan had to lower his hat to admire the performance from Ousmane Dembele. The French striker did not score ( Mbappe scored the only goal), but what Dembele showed on the pitch made him considered the most impressive player.
Stephan shared that if Dembele had improved his finishing skills, perhaps by now the former Barcelona star would have had the Golden Ball. This is Stephan's personal point of view and the weight of prestige is not large. However, it is undeniable that Dembele is now much better than his version when he first joined PSG.
After 34 appearances for the French team in Ligue-1, Dembele has only 1 goal and 13 assists. However, the role of this striker in coach Luis Enrique's squad is becoming more and more clearly demonstrated.
According to the former Barcelona captain, every time Dembele dribbles, he often freezes space for 2-3 teammates. This is the last thing in every attack of PSG because they have many fast-paced stars, just needing space immediately will create danger.
As Stephan commented, scoring is something Dembele needs to improve on. However, at PSG at the moment, the 26-year-old striker's role is to provide the ball and opportunities. Under Enrique, every PSG attack has to be transferred to Dembele, which is the star's importance.
All statistics prove this point of view correct. At PSG, Dembele has the second most opening passes, behind only Achraf Hakimi. Not only that, Dembele has an average of 15.2 passes from the back in each match. Looking at the big picture, on all fronts, Dembele has had 15 assists, a good number.
Dembele has more expected goals (xG) not including penalties and expected assists (9.8) than any other player in the team, apart from Mbappe. As for the number of passes into the box (50) and the number of successful dribbles (58), this striker has been leading PSG since the start of the 2023-2024 season.
Dembele has played 55% of his maximum minutes in Ligue-1 since the start of the season for PSG. The French club's xG is 0.35 per game higher than when Dembele did not play.
For most of the season, Enrique Dembele has played mainly on the right wing. From there, the stunt moves with Hakimi were more effective and more deadly than expected. It has been a long time since PSG has had such a strong and even right wing.
Enrique simply describes the importance of Dembele. He said that no player is not important when he is given the ball by the whole team for distribution. In the match against Barcelona, when Hakimi was suspended, Dembele's role was further increased.
The most worrying problem for the 26-year-old star is still the injury story. Since the beginning of the season, Dembele has only played the full 90 minutes in 4 matches. Having to work hard while his teammates are injured will become a double-edged sword for both Dembele and Enrique. In Mbappe's almost final season at Parc des Princes, PSG want to win the Champions League. They need people alongside Mbappe like Dembele to concretize that.
The upcoming match against Barcelona will be an opportunity for Dembele to prove that Barcelona's decision to abandon him was a mistake. As Mbappe is set to leave the team, the Champions League games are so important that if he can shine, the upcoming prince position at Parc des Princes will be difficult to escape the hands of Dembele, he should take advantage of that.
