Barcelona: Ousmane Dembele shows value in El Clasico cameo

The French winger took his opportunity after a poor spell of form that saw him drop out of the first-team.

Ernesto Valverde opted for Rafinha to take Lionel Messi’s place in the starting lineup against Real Madrid after his excellent display in Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Internazionale. His ability to retain and recycle possession as well as working hard defensively to keep a strong collective shape and press the opposition worked well, although he started to fade in the second half after Real’s change of shape which made his substitution the right choice.

The Brazilian was a safer option than Ousmane Dembele to use a starter due to his commitment to his defensive responsibilities, which is an area the Frenchman needs to work on.

Dembele’s best performances this season, prior to the Clasico, have come as a starter because it can take him a while to get up to the speed of the match when he comes on a substitute, however, he had an instant impact against Real Madrid.

Within a few minutes of coming on, he received the ball in space behind the midfield, after a smart bit of play between Arthur Melo and Jordi Alba, and drove into the opposition half before playing in Sergi Roberto who crossed for Luis Suarez to fire a bullet header home. This was a key goal because it gave Barcelona a two-goal cushion with 15 minutes of normal time remaining.

The 21-year-old also assisted the fifth goal as he received the ball on the left-wing, then forced Nacho to commit into a 1v1 before beating him with quick footwork and chipping in a cross for Arturo Vidal to head home. He kept his play simple in this match rather than overcomplicating things with needless tricks, which is probably one of the main reasons why he was effective, although the large gaps left by Los Blancos definitely helped.

Prior to Dembele coming on, Valverde moved Roberto forwards with Nelson Semedo coming on for Rafinha, and the two of them had a significant impact on proceedings because the last three goals came after this. The much-maligned Barcelona manager deserves huge credit for getting his tactics and substitutions spot on to come away with a memorable win.

In terms of his defensive responsibilities, Dembele took them seriously because he tracked back to form part of the defensive shape which ensured that they were hard to break down due to being vertically compact. However, he did benefit from having the hard-working Roberto as part of the front three, so him and Suarez were the players tasked with the least responsibilities. Nevertheless, it was good to see him contributing in all phases, which has been an issue for him previously.

He has certainly put in a strong case for why he deserves to start, so Valverde has a selection conundrum over the next few games and it will be interesting to see who he picks. There will be games in the future, though, where he will have to make a similar impact off the bench, which makes this a promising sign.