The pros and cons of Manchester United signing Ousmane Dembélé, a thread:

Pros: He solves their issue of not having a good right winger (sorry Dan James) and would suit United’s preferred tactic of counter-attacking, with his pace and dribbling being his strongest attributes.

He’s also very two-footed, and can play on either wing. That versatility would suit the way Rashford and Martial like to interchange between positions.

He’s only 23, and should not be written off completely due to a few difficult seasons at Barcelona. He has proven that when fit, he can be a productive player, scoring 14 goals in the 18/19 season for Barça.

At Barcelona, injuries played a part in his disappointing form, as well as his preference to play on the right, which made it difficult to accommodate him and Messi into the same team.

Cons: His injury record is not great. In the three years he’s been at Barcelona, he has been ruled out for 522 days by various muscle injuries. But, it was never a problem until he joined Barcelona.

His timekeeping also appears to be a problem. Reports in Spain claim he has been late to team meetings after staying up all night play video games on several occasions. Not the sort of thing that Solskjaer would stand for.

How does Dembélé compare to Sancho? He prefers to create space for himself by selling defenders with clever feints and tricks, but is prone to sometimes doing one too many. Dembélé also prefers the ball to feet so he can dribble, while Sancho is better at running in behind.

But ultimately, is he worth the risk for United right now? Probably. He won’t solve all their problems, but he could solve one of them, and right now United need all the reinforcements they can get.