The Rise of Dembele

Much was expected from Ousmane Dembele after he moved from Borussia Dortmund for a 105m euro transfer fee a club record at the time. Following a stellar season where he scored 10 goals and provided 21 assists.

He made his debut for Barcelona as a second half subsitute at the Camp Nou assisting Luis Suarez for his teams fifth of the night versus Espanyol.

In his next game and first start for Barca away to Getafe he injured his hamstring and was ruled out for four months. He was given the medical green light on 2 January 2018 to return to action.

A couple weeks later, he again injured himself against Real Sociedad and was ruled out for up to four weeks. Valverde rarely handed Dembele starts and the most painful example was in Rome when Barca were 2-0 down and needed a goal but he was not called up.

The few opportunities handed to him he failed to really make any meaningful impact, he would attempt a dribble then lose the ball and his defensive contribution was poor. There were flashes of brilliance, notably his brace in the 5-1 win over Villarreal at home, where he scored a Messi-esque goal dribbling several players before chipping the ball into the back of the net. He finished the season with 4 goals and 8 assists.

He also won the world cup with France however, he did not feature much

He played his first game this season starting on the left side of the attack against Sevilla in the Super Cup he drifted to the right side in the second half and scored a cracker which turned out to be the winning goal.

His next goal came against Valladolid in a 1-0 win. He followed that up with another goal in the next game at home versus Huesca in an 8-2 win. In the following away game at the Anoeta he also scored the winning goal to win it 2-1 for Barca.

In the Champions League Opener against PSV Eindoven at Camp Nou he scored the fabulous second goal, he picked the ball facing his goal and did a trick turn dribbled his way to the edge of the box before firing a lovely right footed curler that Coutinho would be proud of.

Ousmane Dembele has already scored more goals (5) than he scored in the whole of last season (4) and he was started all the games this season, Valverde certainly now thinks of him as a key player.