Jamal Musiala

Why are people comparing him to Bellingham?

Musiala has always been a #10 or a winger, whilst Bellingham has only played there since the start of last season. Even as #10s, they are different profiles, but Bellingham can play way deeper and still be world class. If he came to United he could do both Bruno's or Mainoo's job and be one of the best in the world at both. Musiala will never play as deep as Kobbie/Gündogan/Thiago/Joao Neves/etc.

Musiala for me is more similar to Wirtz, Foden or Xavi Simons.
 
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
 
Zehner said:
I don't think Bellingham was anywhere near Musiala's level of performance in the Bundesliga. I would rank the recent Bundesliga prodigees like that:

1. Wirtz & Musiala
3. Sancho
4. Haaland
5. Bellingham
6. Havertz

Bellingham plays much better for Madrid than he did for Dortmund. But he's a very different player to Musiala and Wirtz. Which is why he'll eventually play a bit deeper than they do. He doesn't possess the same attacking prowess but they lack his wholistic impact all over the pitch.
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Bellingham plays much further up top for Madrid in a role that obviously allows him to get way more goal contributions than he was able to at Dortmund...but it's such a different role that I think calling him worse in Dortmund is not correct.
 
backpass said:
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
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It's not just this one game though. He's been doing this in many many games per season for years now.
 
Rojofiam said:
Bellingham plays much further up top for Madrid in a role that obviously allows him to get way more goal contributions than he was able to at Dortmund...but it's such a different role that I think calling him worse in Dortmund is not correct.
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He's playing much more mature than he did for Dortmund. You mentioned that he plays further up top already but players who play further up top usually have worse passing accuracies, yet Bellingham's went up from 81.7% in his last Bundesliga season to 88.3% in his first La Liga season. He improved in every single aspect of his performances, IMO.
 
Rojofiam said:
Why are people comparing him to Bellingham?

Musiala has always been a #10 or a winger, whilst Bellingham has only played there since the start of last season. Even as #10s, they are different profiles, but Bellingham can play way deeper and still be world class. If he came to United he could do both Bruno's or Mainoo's job and be one of the best in the world at both. Musiala will never play as deep as Kobbie/Gündogan/Thiago/Joao Neves/etc.

Musiala for me is more similar to Wirtz, Foden or Xavi Simons.
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Actually, Nagelsmann played Musiala most often in a double pivot in his first season as a first team regular in 2021/22 at age 18. Both Flick and Nagelsmann have used him in around 5 different positions throughout his first years, he’s quite versatile. Of course he doesn’t have the physique of Bellingham, but he is surprisingly good defensively for such an offensive minded player. He is in the top 91st percentile for tackles and interceptions and has a decent ground tackle success rate.
 
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backpass said:
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
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Agree. McT has had some good games and scored some equally impressive goals but we all know he is largely not good enough for us.

Musiala is not who we need
 
Zehner said:
He's playing much more mature than he did for Dortmund. You mentioned that he plays further up top already but players who play further up top usually have worse passing accuracies, yet Bellingham's went up from 81.7% in his last Bundesliga season to 88.3% in his first La Liga season. He improved in every single aspect of his performances, IMO.
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You need to consider that Madrid usually exert way more control over their opponents than Dortmund do, and are generally a much better team than them.
 
backpass said:
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
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Well the hype is based on his talent, which you agree is amazing
 
Rojofiam said:
You need to consider that Madrid usually exert way more control over their opponents than Dortmund do, and are generally a much better team than them.
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Dortmund had 58% possession in Bundesliga 2022/23 and Real had 59% in La Liga 2023/24.

I've seen Bellingham play for Dortmund a lot (>50 live matches) and he really plays differently for Real :) I used to think he was vastly overrated while at Dortmund and really rate him now because he has cut lots of bad habits from his game. It speaks for itself that he has improved his passing accuracy massively despite playing further up front andmore than doubling his goal contributions. I still have him below Musiala and Wirtz, though.
 
GlasgowCeltic said:
Well the hype is based on his talent, which you agree is amazing
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Yes, however we have seen him quite often disapear or beeing not so good in games as well. I believe for example that Guardialo would not want him. Hes doing the dribbles amazingly however he seems not to have the awareness where better not to try them.
Again I love watching him, but he is far from the finished product. Especially if you go physically hard 3-4 times, than he is often done for the game. Might be explained by his age could also be just how he is.
 
backpass said:
Yes, however we have seen him quite often disapear or beeing not so good in games as well. I believe for example that Guardialo would not want him. Hes doing the dribbles amazingly however he seems not to have the awareness where better not to try them.
Again I love watching him, but he is far from the finished product. Especially if you go physically hard 3-4 times, than he is often done for the game. Might be explained by his age could also be just how he is.
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That simply isn't true. He isn't a headless chicken type dribbler (Ben Arfa type). He knows when to drivble and has awareness of what is going on around him as well as when to release the ball. An elite dribbler.

I sense ALOT of saltiness in the thread because he plays for Germany. If he played for England, the hype would be through the roof, even more than Bellingham; as much as Rooney.

Ofcourse his output can improve but the ceiling is very very high.
 
NewGlory said:
Agree. McT has had some good games and scored some equally impressive goals but we all know he is largely not good enough for us.

Musiala is not who we need
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McT has never split a defence with the types of dribbles Musiala does.
I love Scott's attitude but he is about as close in level to Musiala as Andy Caroll is to Mbappe.
 
backpass said:
Yes, however we have seen him quite often disapear or beeing not so good in games as well. I believe for example that Guardialo would not want him. Hes doing the dribbles amazingly however he seems not to have the awareness where better not to try them.
Again I love watching him, but he is far from the finished product. Especially if you go physically hard 3-4 times, than he is often done for the game. Might be explained by his age could also be just how he is.
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I think we all agree that he is far from being the finished product. Which just makes the hype even more justified.
 
backpass said:
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
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Woudln't be one game. We were trash against them in group stage but he stood out in both games. He was very good against Real Madrid too from what i remember. I think people will overlook inconsistency at that age and its more about what level of opposition you can produce against, what kind of pressure you can produce in. He looks pretty good in that regard. I think any decent coach would fancy the chance to iron out some rough edges and he'd be amongst the most desirable players in his position at the moment.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a brilliant player to watch and I thought he was the best on the pitch last night. But already I can sense the overrating happening yet again because hes a pretty dribbler. It happens every single time. Dribbling is a great attribute and it looks flashy and fantastic, but it’s not the only attribute which is why I think Wirtz will end up the better player. It’s still early to say and maybe musiala will add the goals to make him truly elite, but at the moment he’s more about his fantastic dribbling opening up moments.
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He already had a goal or assist every 110 minutes in the league last year. Clearly he hasn‘t scratched the ceiling of his abilities yet, but he is already prolific.
 
Acrobat7 said:
He already had a goal or assist every 110 minutes in the league last year. Clearly he hasn‘t scratched the ceiling of his abilities yet, but he is already prolific.
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Yeh that’s pretty good. Have to say I’d like to see him do it in a better league though before he deserves the top level praise. No offence but the Bundesliga just isn’t a great place to judge talent.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
Yeh that’s pretty good. Have to say I’d like to see him do it in a better league though before he deserves the top level praise. No offence but the Bundesliga just isn’t a great place to judge talent.
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Aren't half of Scotland's players playing EPL?

I'd even say the Bundesliga had a higher level than the EPL this season judging by how poor Arsenal poor looked against the third best German team.
 
Zehner said:
Aren't half of Scotland's players playing EPL?

I'd even say the Bundesliga had a higher level than the EPL this season judging by how poor Arsenal poor looked against the third best German team.
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More like the championship! International football anyway is an irrelevant way to consider the level of competition in a country. Leverkusen were rightly being praised as one of the best in Europe. Bayern even in an off season are still a powerhouse obviously and Dortmund are competitive most of the time, but overall the level of quality and style of tactics are far harder in the EPL week to week. La Liga is also better overall. To a lot of casual football fans (I’d consider myself one of them 100% outside of Utd), players just don’t get that much recognition outside of either the EPL or one of the Spanish giants.
 
Lyng said:
McT has never split a defence with the types of dribbles Musiala does.
I love Scott's attitude but he is about as close in level to Musiala as Andy Caroll is to Mbappe.
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Hilarious and 100% agree.

I almost choked on my lunch seeing the word McT appear in the same conversation as Musiala.
 
In a world of methodical robot football it's nice to see there are still dribbling wizards like him in the world. :drool:
 
backpass said:
Musiala was not very impressive second half of the Bundesliga season. Yes he is an amazing prospect, but he is not very consistent right now. The hype after this one game now is crazy.
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He has been very good since he started, four (!) years ago, and kept improving. Calling that a "hype" is for Americans who only watch a few matches every other year.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
Outside the goal he hasn’t really done anything but good finish
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Been pretty poor to be fair, losing the ball every time he got it. But then he took the goal very well.
 
Thought he was quite bad until the goal to be honest. I think he's getting more attention from the defenses after his goals in the opening two matches so is finding it more difficult to get space.
 
So good! The sort of player I’d be desperate for us to sign but unfortunately we’re not at the level we once were where we could realistically attract this calibre of player. Maybe one day. :(
 
Acrobat7 said:
Thank you Brexit!
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Haha, some people may not know that Musiala and his mother were prompted to return to Germany (after almost 10 years in England) when he was 16, in part because of Brexit. So you can blame David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Farage et al for Musiala burning up this tournament for Germany :lol:
 
Kwabs said:
Haha, some people may not know that Musiala and his mother were prompted to return to Germany (after almost 10 years in England) when he was 16, in part because of Brexit. So you can blame David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Farage et al for Musiala burning up this tournament for Germany :lol:
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Yeah, his mother had trouble extending her work visa due to Brexit so the family packed their stuff and went home to Germany.
 
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