Signed from PSG in the Summer. Was their youth team’s top scorer.
Stats: 10 goals in 8 appearances (inc. 1 as sub), 2 hat tricks, 1 penalty
The “new” Moussa Dembele has added something we’ve not seen in a while for the under 18s: an out and out striker who goes the other way. Altman, Tankovic, Woodrow all like to come deep and get involved in the build-up whereas Dembele plays off the shoulder a lot more (as you can see with his first goal against Reading and in the way he won the penalty against Southampton, both coming from dodgy backpasses he was alive to).
It looks like Wigley is trying to get him more involved though (I remember his debut wen he’d literally just be doing sprints in behind defenders every time somebody had any kind of time to look for a forward pass) as he’s coming deep a bit more now, though he’s still a bit rusty here often giving up possession by trying to do something out of the ordinary instead of maybe doing a Walcott and laying it off then to spin in behind. I’m sure you’ve all seen his physique, he really is a handful but at the moment goes down a bit too easily for my liking.
His goals have been a bit of everything so far: tap in’s, good strong headers, a few lovely finishes from distance, so he seems pretty comfortable wherever it comes to him. He certainly looks to enjoy the goalscoring side more than the beautiful side like you’d say Tankovic or Altman love being involved with (it took a lot of persuading for Tankovic to get the penalty off him against Southampton).
I’m honestly not sure how far he can go. His all round game needs a lot of work but he’s very young and physically has it all (just needs to learn to use it). If he did learn to use it then he’d probably have a record as good as Carlton Cole did at youth level for simply being physically more developed than those around him.
I will say we’ve actually won every league game he’s played so he’s a bit of an omen right now (I could even go so far as saying we’ve won every game he’s played up front as he was shunted out wide for the FA Youth Cup loss to Arsenal). Remember that he was injured for a long period earlier on in the season so he’s still bedding in, but his English is pretty good and he must have a reasonable head on his shoulders to have moved from PSG where he’d probably have no future in their sugar daddy world.
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