No probs.
Yes, this is annoying but is helpful as to which poster's opinions to ignore in the future.
He's not even an elite footballer on our team for his age bracket. In fact, he has been justifiably left off his own national team. I'm willing to say that he will not receive 10 more caps in his lifetime. All it takes is a look at what's coming up behind and he's not getting back. The only position where he could get back is the 8 or the 6 and his present game is neither of these. Too much talent up front for England.
Are you willing to revisit this opinion in the future if (when!) you are wrong?
He has played in multiple formations. To say he is 'adept' is a stretch. He was awful last season. So awful that even he (his PR folks) had to come out and apologize for it. Regardless of the defenses by many on these boards he was awful. And he's been awful this year.
It doesn't matter where he plays now he will be awful unless you give him a free role again. And truthfully, any player with decent technical ability and athleticism would do better there. And that has always been my contention.
go back and look at videos of his 'glory days'. Watch how times his bumbles, slows, or ruins moves. He is not a good footballer and yet he is credited with abilities that truly aren't there. If you are that close to goal a higher percentage of passes are going to contribute to goals than if they were made in the center circle. That's not a function of being 'smart' that's a function of being higher up the pitch.
Never seen this. The next time he does this will be the first in a Spurs kit. I've seen him aimlessly relieve pressure by aimlessly dribbling left out to the channel but 'breaking' a press is what Dembele, Iniesta, Messi, Hazard etc do. That is a charitable description for Dele. Because if he was able to do this then why isn't he doing it now. We could sure use a player in the MF that could receive the ball under pressure, turn and transition with it at his feet. Dele is not this player and will never be.
Back post runs are not amazing. And since this is all he has it is being cut out by defenses. It's not amazing. And I wish it was a freak event. That would mean he has added somehting to his game from the previous 4 seasons.
Remember, +/- 10 more caps.
The talent coming through for England is good but it a long way off from where Dele is. It's always hard to know what's in the mind of an England manager as there are few games to assess with any clarity the identity he's working on but I do like Southgate and what he's done with England so far.
Who exactly do you see as better than him in the England set-up comming through? It ain't Mount (not this season at least). It's not Rashford, he has the pace that Dele doesn't and sometimes that's a useful asset to deploy to turn defences, but he really is the most overrated of players, I think he's poor and should be nowhere near the Snr England side. I really like Sancho but he's been average when given the minutes so far but he's the one player I would like to see remain in the Snr Squad and build his minutes and allow proper integration. Abraham, off to a flyer this season, has a soundtrack record leading up to this point.
Then there's the older bracket of the likes of Wilson, delighted he's been called up totally deserved but at 27 he's left it late and because of this it's fair to say it's not a banker he's going to cement a place in the team, you feel it's now or never. Oxlade-Chamberlin, I won't waste my breath here. Delph, think he's done. Lingard, what the fuck has this player ever done? The only thing in his favour is he brings (on occasion) energy to Utd, but think this is only because Utd is one of the most ponderous sides to watch. Wellbeck, done. and it's not Barkley, although he is capable of putting in the odd good performance, he's not constant enough and I think he's a dumb footballer but still deserves to be in the squad and has a use.
Now that's a lot of footballers and whilst writing them down one thing clearly shows just how versatile Dele is as he's played in practically all of the positions these players claim. But if we are looking to narrow down their specific roles those players listed above will get their minutes when Kane, Sterling don't that leaves just one forward position (Kane is also defacto number 10) available and that could be to the left or right of Kane as Sterling is capable of playing either side.
If we are agreeing a number 6 definition is a holding player/defensive midfielder then that's not Dele's position and under Southgate, he's completely stuck on playing two of them (let's hope Winks stays fit so that selection is broken). So, that leaves and back to the last attacking position/number 10/number 8 where I best see Dele suited for England.
More more I write that the more I see Dele as a starter over all of those mentioned. He will get his 10 games so happy to predict this (injury aside).
Dele breaks an oppo press with a quick touch to another player, it's completely different to Dembele, who would hold onto the ball and dribble, the best description of Dembele is press resistant, very hard to get the ball off him. Dele losses the ball a lot, when playing in an advanced role he's looking for a higher risk ball which are often cut out, the one that finds his man will have broken the lines of the oppo. There are literally scores and scores of these in out build up.
Right now Sterling is scoring a hatful of goals by doing what Dele did, timing a run from deep from a super ball played from midfield usually from the wond of De Bruyne, it's an art and even more difficult to perform when the oppo are fully expecting it to happen but can do absolutely fuck all to prevent it. With Dele though it wasn't just back post, he'd find space with regular occurrence all around the oppo penalty box.