Not physically durable? He made nearly 50 appearances all told and didn’t miss a single training session, according to Critchley. Not versatile? The former winger spent much of the season playing centre midfield in a 3-5-2. Not big or strong enough? Dembele has grown and filled out a little, but it’s more a case of making intelligent adaptations to his game that render his size irrelevant.
Look up the new compilations of him on YouTube and you’ll see him repeatedly receiving the ball in tight spaces and gliding through attempts to barge him off it. What is also apparent is his ability to deliver a wicked set-piece, which is where many of his assists came from.
‘He’s got a unique ability to twist and turn and receive the ball under pressure, to take the ball when he’s marked and eliminate defenders,’ says Critchley, who worked alongside Rodgers during a long spell coaching at Liverpool’s academy and later served as Steven Gerrard’s assistant at Aston Villa.
‘He’s got a low centre of gravity and can just take defenders out the game in a split second. We slightly adjusted his position during the season just to give him that freedom, because teams started putting together plans to stop him, putting men on him and things like that.
‘He played off the front for us, through the middle, slightly wider, and, towards the end, as an attacking midfielder in a three-man midfield. He’s fantastic to work with, because he just absolutely loves football. You’d turn around after training and he’d be on his own, dribbling, practising shooting and free-kicks, flicking the ball up, juggling… he just always wants to learn and improve.
‘He was the standout performer for us, he won pretty much all of our awards.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...oko-Dembele-makes-20s-debut-aged-just-13.html