Form Guide: Why Ousmane Dembele is Europe's most promising talent
When a youngster breaks onto the scene and impresses there is always a real hubbub around just how far that player could go in his career. Monaco striker Kylian Mbappe is in the limelight at present, already being touted as ‘the next Thierry Henry’, but as far as the finest talents in Europe are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to find one more prodigious than Ousmane Dembele.
While this has not been his breakout season, meaning his exploits have flown somewhat under the radar, the ease with which the 19-year old has adapted to the Bundesliga and first team action with an exciting Borussia Dortmund side has been hugely impressive. He took time to find his feet in front of goal, scoring just once in his first 15 appearances for the club, but his influence in the final third in general has been apparent all season.
A goal and an assist at the weekend took his respective tallies to six and nine for the season, with the latter enough to rank second in the Bundesliga. With another strike to his name in the Champions League, Dembele has quickly endeared himself to ‘the yellow wall’, while five assists in Europe’s elite club competition is again enough to place second.
Indeed, when you combine assists across league and European competition it’s only Neymar (15) that can better Dembele’s tally of 14, which, for a teenager, is a remarkable feat. It’s even more remarkable when you consider that the France international - capped three times by les Bleus this season - has, at the time of writing, started just 22 matches across the league and Champions League, which is six fewer than the Brazilian.
There has been one man in particular that has profited from the winger’s creativity a great deal, with Dortmund hitman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang striking up quite the understanding with the Frenchman. The former Rennes man teed up the Gabonese striker once again against Bayer Leverkusen last time out, meaning 7 of his 9 league assists for the club have found the flying forward. That’s not only the most potent assist-to-goalscorer combination for Tuchel’s men by a distance but also the best across Europe’s major leagues.
It’s the quality of his assists that is most impressive though, as often you’ll find a player with so many to have a number that are merely simple passes where the goalscorer does all of the work. That’s not the case with Dembele, however, who has generally put chances on a plate for his teammates, with a quality of end product that is rare to find in any player, let alone one so young.
It’s no coincidence that Aubameyang has scored five more clear cut opportunities than any other Bundesliga player, with 17 of 21 goals this season deemed as such. Dembele, with 12, has created at least three more big chances than any player in Germany’s top-flight, and let’s just confirm once again, he’s 19!
Many of the teenager’s assists have been inch perfect passes across the six yard-box or cut backs that showcase his vision and awareness, while four of 14 have been crosses that Aubameyang has invariably headed home. He’s also conjured assists out of nothing, often following rampaging runs down the flank, still having the presence of mind to deliver a telling ball. His assist against RB Leipzig is a case in point, proving to be a match winning contribution, and it's the timing of Dembele’s contributions that have been crucial to Thomas Tuchel’s side too.
Having scored the opener against Leverkusen at the weekend his assist put Dortmund 3-1 up after Kevin Volland had brought the visitors back into the game. The teenager registered both assists as Die Schwarzgelben twice came from behind against Hoffenheim and he’s made a habit of getting his side out of trouble. An assist for Aubameyang against Ingolstadt reduced a surprise 2-goal deficit to help Dortmund to a point, while he also set up the striker to equalise against Hertha Berlin and registered a further two assists after the team fell behind early on to Legia Warsaw, putting his side in front to set up an eventual 8-4 victory.
With all of this talk of the youngster’s end product and creativity, we’ve yet to even touch on the facet of his game for which he is perhaps best renowned and revered. A successful dribble every 19.1 minutes is the most frequent of any Bundesliga player to register at least a thousand minutes of league action this season and fifth in all of Europe with the same minimum playing time. Moreover, the man at the top of the pile - Adama Traore - helps to highlight just how special Dembele is. While the Boro winger is a formidable dribbler his end product couldn’t be further from the quality of the Dortmund man, who must already be considered as one of the finest creative wingers on the continent.
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His manager will need him to prove as much as Borussia Dortmund attempt to overturn a narrow 1-goal deficit from the first leg of their Champions League tie with Benfica. While Aubameyang will be the man most tip to help the German outfit reach the quarter-finals, if he is to score he may well need his right hand man to put yet another chance on a plate for him, so the teenager will have a pivotal role to play.
His importance to such an impressive squad is certainly telling. Indeed, it surely won’t be too long until we are discussing just who ‘the next’ Ousmane Dembele will be. He is, after all, a phenomenal talent in his own right.
