Ousmane Dembélé, 27-year-old striker for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team, is impressing in 2025 with a string of complete performances and numerous goals. This in a position that is generally more axial in Paris. Didier Deschamps, coach of the French national team, comments on this development in L’Equipe newspaper.
Deschamps “He’s much more decisive for very specific reasons.”
“When you look at Dembélé today, do you still see him as a winger or a center-forward?
He’s always been an attacking, creative player. He’s much more decisive for very specific reasons. Whether the axial position suits him in Paris, whether he’s closer to the surface, whether he makes less effort, whether he’s more lucid, more effective, yes.
But he’s capable of playing in several positions, too. In Paris, he has a central starting position, but if you take photos at ten different times, he’ll be on the left, in the middle, just about everywhere. Of course, he’s a finisher. With us, if he hadn’t been injured at the last training camp, he would certainly have played in a different position. Remember, too, that at Dortmund (2016-2017), he sometimes played in a three-man midfield. And not at the top.
But if you put him on the right wing in blue and he stops scoring… It’ll be my fault.
(Smiles.) Anyway, I know, and I live with it very well, that it’s all my fault. I’m fine with that. Basically, he hasn’t always had the skill in matches, but in finishing exercises at the end of training, he’s always been very skilful, because he’s relaxed and has both feet. But today, you’re not going to tell me that Ousmane is a center-forward.
Deschamps: “You have to put all the elements together.
It’s rare to see such a revelation in a 27-year-old striker…
Maybe, but you have to put all the elements together. For example, the fact that he didn’t have many full seasons for a long time. Operations and injuries slowed him down.”
Deschamps is keen to avoid positioning Dembélé as a new central striker, which would force changes to his national team line-up. Although he could also try to have him in this more central role. In any case, he is right to point out that the Parisian is not suddenly a full striker.
Above all, he has a great deal of freedom in coach Luis Enrique’s game, as do most of the players. Dembélé seems to thrive on all these possible moves, making him totally unpredictable. That’s the whole idea at PSG right now.
Dembélé can still come from the right and be primarily a “winger” during a match. We’ve seen that with Paris recently. But this new positioning, more often close to goal, means the striker has fewer long runs to make in order to get into shooting position.
He has also clearly gained in serenity, which can be credited to both the player and his coach. The latter was able to build his confidence and help him progress. It’s a great success. But beware: periods of lesser success happen to all players, and you mustn’t “throw everything away” when they do. Whether with the French national team or PSG.
