Yeah, 0.1 less. If you count interceptions then Carrick average is better than M'Vila.
Tackles =/= interceptions. Carrick is possibly the best player in the world at intercepting the ball, and that's something that comes with experience. Complete dead end, arguing about interceptions in this situation.
Messi was dispossessed more than many players, doesn't mean he is not good with ball under pressure. That mean he tries risky passes and risky moves which Fellaini doesn't. He plays it safe whereas Dembele is not.
And why do you want a player that does Hollywood passes inaccurately? It's all about correct pass choice. Carrick and Scholes are masters at it, whereas Dembele looks like exactly what he is: a trequartista playing as a central midfielder. It's the same argument I use against Gerrard at CM. If you don't have the discipline to play it short, why should that be seen as a strength? Sure, he can play it long, but Fellaini has the ability to do that as well, only he has the discipline to play it short too.
Oh, and here's the kicker: Fellaini has 80 completed long balls, to Dembele's 47. So I think we can pretty much throw the 'oh but Fellaini can't do long passes' argument out of the window.
Apart from defensive midfielder, he has played every role. So when I said 'any role' did you think I means even CB, LB,RM, ST, water carrier, ball boy, manager, assistant manager?
So apart from the role you need him to play, he's played every role. Wonderful.
Sarcasm apart, has he really played any other roles? He's played differing positions, sure, but different roles? No. No matter where he's played, Dembele's job has been to drive from midfield and link with his strikers, whether he's been at AM or CM or on the wings.
There is nothing to suggest Fellaini will fold the midfield together, looking at how many games Everton were dominated in games.
Quite apart from the fact that Everton really weren't dominated that much at all, blaming an entire team's problems on one player is ludicrous. Almost as ludicrous as the idea that Fellaini hasn't been the lynchpin of their midfield, particularly defensively.
For the love of God, i never said he was holding midfielder. Fellaini averages 0.7 interceptions more per game. Big deal. If you count tackling and interceptions Fellaini averages 4.4 whereas Dembele 4 and I know who is better on the ball and less clumsy. Fellaini was dribbles 0.8 times and Dembele was 0.4. Which also shows Dembele is not any lesser in winning ball back.
Did you even read what I said? Tackles and interceptions are NOT completely interlinked. Someone can have a great tackling rate, but not be a very good defensive player, just because their positioning has been bad. Their defensive contribution individually would be relatively high in terms of work rate, but their contribution to the defending as a team would be far less, because they don't know how to mark and position themselves.
Stats themselves very rarely can be taken at face value; they need to be inspected with regard to the context. Just saying 'hurrdurr I can add up and 4.4 is only slightly better than 4' is missing the point by a measure of distance not even yet created by man.
Where exactly did anyone say Dembele was DM? Making thing up now?
No, I just assumed that you realised that United need a defensive midfielder. Which they *******
obviously do. Nobody would be stupid enough to possibly say otherwi-
Good, never said Dembele was DM and we don't need one. We need someone who is good on ball under pressure which we lacked. Which was evident when we gave ball easily against City and in Europe.
...oh dear.
Just about every team in the world needs a DM. Even Barca and Madrid have Busquets and Khedira and the like. They're arguably THE most critical component of a midfield nowadays.
Winning the ball back was not the only problem. Retaining was much bigger problem for us when under pressure.
And you know what'll help you retain the ball? No, not ANOTHER deep-lying playmaker or a driving midfielder. Perhaps someone big and strong, who can use his strength to shield the ball...
Or he plays safe passes only?
Debunked earlier pretty conclusively.
Exactly, Scholes is very young you see to play whole season and Clverley has shown lot of promise but still he has not proven and having more depth wont hurt either. Much better than watching Park, Rafael playing as CM and losing the game or playing Giggs as CM.
Defour is not just a deep lying playmaker or like Carrick. He is more mobile and better passer in the final third.
That's just insane. What team goes out and buys MORE of what they have great stocks of? You have -literally no- defensive midfielders for the foreseeable future with Fletcher's ongoing plight, yet you just want more and more passing midfielders? As proved against City and against Athletic, a midfield filled with passers just cannot compete when the opposition comes at you hard and fast. That is, unless you're Barca, who are on another level with their passing ability and it would be foolish to try and replicate them.
Busquets is far far from destroyer.
Uh... no he isn't. He's an excellently reliable passer as well, but he is first and foremost a defensive midfield destroyer, and one of the best in the world at it. Literally every source you could possibly find supports this argument, and so do the stats.
And you missed it when I said 2006-09 when Scholes was capable of playing whole 90 mins or had legs.
I was referring to your reference to the second half of the season just gone, since that's actually relevant.
Exactly what I said, when we dont have much time on ball I would love someone like Dembele in the team.
When you don't have much time on the ball, you want someone who is slight, weak, and has a tendency to misplace long passes?
Our problem was not just defensive, it was doing something useful with the ball from the middle. Which Dembele will.
And Kagawa will. You did enough with the ball from the middle and you'll do even more with Kagawa. What you didn't, and still won't have unless you remedy it is someone who can win the ball back for you to do something with in the first place.