NEW YORK, June 17 : If Ousmane Dembele arrived at the World Cup hoping his last two club seasons would finally establish him as one of the cornerstones of Didier Deschamps' France side, the tournament's opening match has instead reinforced a familiar question - where exactly does he fit in this team?
For all his success with Paris St Germain, where he reinvented himself as a central creative force and one of Europe's most influential forwards, Dembele remains a player searching for his place in the national team.
France's 3-1 victory over Senegal offered another illustration of the dilemma.
While Les Bleus produced enough attacking quality to ease past the African side, Dembele again struggled to make himself indispensable in an attack that increasingly appears to revolve around Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise.
The emergence of Olise has complicated Dembele's quest to become France's attacking leader. The Bayern Munich playmaker has quickly developed an understanding with Mbappe, combining between the lines and helping drive many of France's most dangerous moves.
That connection has left Dembele operating largely on the right flank, a role that contrasts sharply with the freedom he enjoyed at PSG this season. In Paris, he drifted inside, dictated attacks and became the focal point of the European champions' offensive play. With France, he found himself wider on Tuesday, leaving room for the explosive Mbappe-Olise duo.
At a time when Mbappe and Olise appear to be forming the attacking partnership around which France are building their title challenge, Dembele is still trying to define his own role.
"The key question is what to do with Ousmane Dembele," Bixente Lizarazu, a 1998 World Cup winner, told French sports daily L'Equipe.
"How do you position him to get the best out of him and bring out the Dembele we've seen at PSG? So far, whether in the warm-up games or in this opening match, we haven't seen him play with his usual freedom. After a game like this, he'll be sitting there wondering what more he can do."
Dembele has never entered a major tournament in better form, yet rarely has his place in the team seemed less obvious.
Deschamps continues to trust his ability to unbalance opponents and create danger, but the challenge facing the France coach is becoming increasingly clear. It is no longer about finding room for Dembele in the starting lineup, but about finding a role that allows the Ballon d'Or winner to become as influential for France as he has been for PSG. If he can't, the 29-year-old could end up sitting on the bench.
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SG