1 Tottenham Player Whose FIFA 16 Stats Overestimate Him
October 11, 2015
The rise to prominence of several Tottenham Hotspur youngsters in 2014-15 put some of their more experienced team-mates in the shade. Developed through the academy or signed with their potential in mind, by the season's end, several expensive purchases had been displaced.
Two of those players, Eric Dier (74) and Harry Kane (78), were in the trio of Tottenham men Bleacher Report's Sam Rooke recognised as being undervalued on FIFA 16, the latest entry to the popular EA Sports football video-game series.
Mousa Dembele was not one of the players offloaded in the wake of the young crop's encouraging progress. Prior to getting injured in late August, he started this season reaffirming his usefulness with hard-grafting shifts in the less familiar position of right-midfield. Of those who remain, however, he is the one whose statistics most overestimate where he is currently at.
Dembele's overall rating of 80 is not wholly undeserved.
He is an established international in a highly touted generation of Belgian footballers. The 28-year-old has a decade's worth of experience playing in the Eredivisie and English Premier League.
On his day, he is one of Spurs' best players—formidable defensively and highly skilful with his contributions to their creative play. Attributes represented in his standout statistics in the latest FIFA, with 82 each for physicality and dribbling.
The hesitation to recognise Dembele's worthiness of being one of the handful of Spurs players with an overall 80-plus rating in the game results from the recent paucity of his best days.
Various injury problems denied him playing time throughout 2014, understandably making it difficult to put together a satisfactory run of form. Like his team-mates, he also had to deal with adapting to the demands of two different new head coaches: Tim Sherwood and his more free-rein style in the early part of the year; the more aggressive and physical demands of Mauricio Pochettino in the latter.
The biggest issue with Dembele during 2014-15, though, was a lack of assertiveness, which seemed to exacerbate his more languid tendencies. Though a little unfair in the respect that is just the way he naturally carries himself, there was nonetheless a feeling there was more he could be offering.
If this was more challenging to do in the intermittent opportunities he received in the new year, the lack of playing time was in part a consequence of the better work of two of those young Spurs hopefuls.
The spirited Ryan Mason and the confident Nabil Bentaleb helped re-energise the midfield heading into the winter months. Sloppy passing and poor concentration would appear latterly—perhaps partly a result of tiredness from being used so often—but in Pochettino's mind, their general efforts still better suited his best-foot forward playing philosophy than others such as Etienne Capoue, Paulinho and, yes, Dembele.
Bentaleb and Mason's FIFA 16 ratings of 75 are reflective of their relative newness to top-flight football—although the former has already played in a World Cup and the latter turned 24 in June. They have solid numbers for midfielders who have begun their Premier League careers well but have plenty to prove.
They probably should not be any higher. But the ratings advantage Dembele has on them is probably too much for a player who has comparatively underwhelmed and is now working to re-establish his own credentials.
Again, prior to going down with an ankle injury suffered in the 0-0 draw with Everton, the Belgian had started 2015-16 in reasonably optimistic fashion. Stationed out right, albeit with licence to interchange with his fellow attacking midfielders, he was providing some welcome steel on his flank while using the ball efficiently enough.
The good form of others such as Erik Lamela and Son Heung-Min in his absence may make it difficult for him to immediately regain his place. Competition is arguably even tougher in his more usual central-midfield position. Also recently injured, Bentaleb and Mason are not even guaranteed starting roles, with Dele Alli and Dier doing so well there of late.
Still, if Dembele approaches whatever opportunities follow with the same application and grit with which he played in August, come FIFA 17, he will be much more deserving of similarly flattering in-game statistics.