Rangers have this week been linked with a move for Peterborough United’s Siriki Dembele, brother of Celtic prospect Karamoko, after the clubs’s director of football revealed that we have been watching the forward in his usual less-than-subtle manner followed by the player himself handing in a transfer request.
He still has 18-months left on his contract so if we were to make any attempts to sign him there would have to be a transfer fee involved but, having seen Peterborough sell Ivan Toney for £5million plus add-ons, he wouldn’t come at too high a price – he certainly shouldn’t cost any more than the fees paid for Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe given their experience and success at a significantly higher level.
As League One isn’t really at the forefront of your average Rangers fan’s mind, the 24-year old won’t exactly be well known, however, Heart and Hand’s Tactics Talk podcast host, Adam Thornton, has run the numbers – via Instat – to see where he would fit in our forward line when compared with Roofe and Ryan Kent.
Interestingly, Dembele impresses most off the ball in; recoveries, free ball pick-ups and attacking challenges, indicating that he is more than willing to get “stuck in” in an attempt to win the ball back and force turnovers, something that is part of our game plan on a weekly basis and that the likes of Kent thrives on.
He also comes out on top in dribble attempts, dribble completions, shots per game and assists, this is a player that picks the ball up and has one thought in his mind – attack.
Despite not being an out-and-out striker he has a better combined goals/assists per game ratio that Kent – standard of League One considered – and when you look at the contributions of the three players it’s easy to see how they would dovetail into a fluent front three, that he is eligible for Scotland won’t have gone a miss either, being “reared” at Dundee and Ayr United would come in handy for European football too.
What is more important in your opinion?
A player producing good stats
A player looking good
Data analysis is just one tool used to support the “eye test” and on paper it’s easy to see why Dembele would pop up on Ross Wilson’s radar, assessing the intangibles like mentality and character is a little harder and questions would undoubtedly be asked as to why he moved to the English lower leagues to make the grade.
Personally, I’m impressed with the numbers that he produces out of possession and they point towards a positive attitude when it comes to fitting into a team ethos, added to his goals and assists they certainly justify taking a look at him, work rate is also a quality that Steven Gerrard admires and demands as standard if you are to be a success in Light Blue.