Has Amorim Found A NEW Position For Patrick Dorgu!?

Last time out against Newcastle United, Patrick Dorgu played a brand new position for Manchester United and he produced one of his best performances in a United shirt. He looked confident and

was full of attacking threat in this match. The question is why did this new

match. The question is why did this new role suit him so much and could he play it more in the future? Now, for me personally, I think one of the most important things that we've got to highlight here is the psychological

change when you play in such a different position as well as the physical change of literally the zone of the pitch that you are playing in. Right? We know that normally when Manchester United for example are on goal kicks and are trying to build the play out from the back. We

know the system where the center backs split and everything and wing backs normally dou on the left would drop into this position here in the first phase to be responsible for helping United to try and play out from the back which means you're going to be receiving the ball

under pressure. You're going to be

under pressure. You're going to be responsible for progressing play. You're

trying to play with the ball in quite risky positions. Fast forward to the

risky positions. Fast forward to the game against Newcastle and on this goal kick as United try and move from the back we cannot even see Patrick Dorgu in the shot and that is because he is so much higher now on the right hand side.

He's almost been boosted like 30 yards up the pitch. So of course that's a very different position. That's a very

different position. That's a very different position to be receiving the ball as a left back or a right winger and not even close to being the same thing. So that helps Dorgu. The other

thing. So that helps Dorgu. The other

thing is the psychological pressure that is taken off of him. Ruben Amarim has recently spoken about Dorgu sometimes feeling anxious almost when he receives the ball. And perhaps that's because of

the ball. And perhaps that's because of the position that he normally plays in.

We've just said when you play deep, you are responsible for taking the ball under pressure. You're playing in

under pressure. You're playing in dangerous positions. You're responsible

dangerous positions. You're responsible for progressing the ball. Suddenly being

this much higher, all of that is taken off of Dorgu. As a winger, you've got more license to lose the ball because it's less dangerous. If you lose the ball as a fullback over here, you're in danger. If you lose it here high on the

danger. If you lose it here high on the right wing, it's not great, but it's not the end of the world. And for me, that took the pressure off of Dorgu and allowed him to express himself a little bit more. And he just looked more

bit more. And he just looked more comfortable.

Now, my comment on Doru being more comfortable on the right wing is a technical comment because of the way that Dorgi likes to play. We covered

this in our match analysis yesterday.

When Dorgu plays on the left hand side, yes, of course, sometimes he will be that runner who sort of goes down the line, but when he's got the ball at his feet, he always has this tendency to come inside the pitch to move inside.

The problem is for Dorgu when he plays on the left and he comes inside, he can't dribble with his left foot because he's moving inside onto his right. And

once the ball is on his right foot, he just lacks solutions. He's not the most two-footed player you're ever going to see. and he also doesn't have the

see. and he also doesn't have the agility or the ball manipulation skills to really work that ball back onto his stronger left foot. And it means at times he's a little bit predictable.

However, if we now move him over to the right side and again ask him to play to his habits of moving inside, he's coming inside onto his left foot. It's more

natural to him. It suits him a lot more.

And he said this himself after the game, playing on the right allows you to come inside onto your stronger left foot. And

once he's done that, he's now closer to his teammates, but with the ball on his left, he's now more comfortable playing the passes, having those interchanges inside the pitch. I think the other big thing is he's got the overlapping run

from Diego Dallow. Normally on the left, if Dorgu comes inside, he's coming into traffic with other Manchester United players. Whereas playing on the right

players. Whereas playing on the right and moving inside, there were moments where he had a little bit of time because Diego Dalo would make the overlapping run, sort of just taking that attention of the fullback. And that

gives Dorgu that little bit more time and he just looked more comfortable coming inside the pitch like he always likes to do but now on his stronger foot where he felt more comfortable finding solutions. I do just quickly have to

solutions. I do just quickly have to interrupt to thank you guys. Uh

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Now, of course, Doru was actually playing as a winger in this game. So,

there were also moments where he had to play wide. Yes, of course, he likes to

play wide. Yes, of course, he likes to go inside the pitch, but you can't always do that. Not in every phase of play. There are moments where Dalow is

play. There are moments where Dalow is much deeper and United need some width on the right side of the pitch. But what

I felt that we saw here from Dorgu was that his experience at Manchester United so far really equipped him for this moment because there are times as a winger where you have to receive with your back to goal. That is something that sometimes you are going to face.

You're going to have to receive this ball, have a defender trying to tackle you from behind and you've got to look after it. Fortunately for Dorgu, he has

after it. Fortunately for Dorgu, he has had 12 months of practicing this as a wing back. So now moving to a winger,

wing back. So now moving to a winger, this was a skill set that he sort of just naturally had and he sort of naturally bought to his game on this side of the pitch, which is really good to see. And that was almost 12 months of

to see. And that was almost 12 months of preparation giving him the tools to do this. And the other thing I liked was

this. And the other thing I liked was that he could get on the turn and he was positive and he was confident and he was aggressive. You know, this touch here is

aggressive. You know, this touch here is really aggressive trying to attack the fullback. Now, it doesn't actually work

fullback. Now, it doesn't actually work on this occasion, but I love that attacking intent. That desire to sort of

attacking intent. That desire to sort of take your man on isn't something we normally see from Duo. He's not a naturally aggressive player with the ball, but in this game he was. He looked

a bit more free. And I think one of the big things is a technical point about the way that you can dribble when you play on the right hand side. Because

he's left footed, he was able to dribble with his left playing on the right. And

that was sort of teasing him towards the opposition fullback. So Dory's first

opposition fullback. So Dory's first touch in a one versus one situation would sort of take him towards the fullback. But because he's taking every

fullback. But because he's taking every touch with his left foot, his stronger foot, that was giving him an edge in a psychological battle with the fullback.

Because if you are a defender in this situation and the the the wide player, the attacker is taking lots of these little touches, lots of these little touches with their left foot, you assume they almost want to come inside the

pitch onto their stronger left, which is what Dorgu normally wants to do. But he

sort of used that as a bait at times. So

he would slow play right down with his footwork and he would sort of go towards the fullback, isolate the fullback using those left footed touches to tease them and then he would just shift the ball and go to the right. He would just knock

the ball, shift the body weight, and sort of dart to the right hand side. And

he looked almost sharper, like a little bit quicker off the mark in this game as well. But I like that he was willing to

well. But I like that he was willing to go down the outside onto his right foot.

Now, I don't think his right foot is amazing, although this particular pick out to Cesco was a really good one. It's

a great ball into him. But I like to see that he was willing to try it. He was

willing to give it a go. It's not

necessarily something that he's amazing at, and he needs a lot of work on his right foot and his end product in general. But I loved seeing a player

general. But I loved seeing a player that wanted to try and do it, that wanted to try and take that fullback both ways. He was willing to come inside

both ways. He was willing to come inside onto his left foot to combine with his teammates, but also to go one versus one down the by line. And at times, he actually had the beating of Lewis Hall.

Now, for this particular match, there was also one thing which worked quite nicely with Dorgi playing on the right hand side, and that was his defensive instinct. Particularly in the second

instinct. Particularly in the second half, Newcastle were on top. They had

all of the ball. United were camping deep trying to defend, but when you've got a winger who is sort of a fullback, sort of a winger, sort of a wing back, he's willing to defend and he's switched on defensively and he wants to help his

teammates. He wants to help out Diego

teammates. He wants to help out Diego Dalow. He's still not retreating into a

Dalow. He's still not retreating into a back five for me. We didn't see that until literally the last few minutes when it was more of a back six. It was a back four with defensive wingers is how I would describe it eventually ending up

for United. But Dorgu was still

for United. But Dorgu was still defensively throughout the game helping his fullback. He wasn't sort of, you

his fullback. He wasn't sort of, you know, shackles off. I'm an attacker now.

I can do whatever I want. Defensively,

he was still very disciplined with his positioning. He was still focusing on

positioning. He was still focusing on helping out his fullback. And in this sort of game where Newcastle start throwing players forward. You've got

Lewis Hall arriving forward from left back, you need Dorgu to be switched on.

He's got to follow that run. If he

doesn't, if he stays high, Diego Dalo is going to, you know, he's going to have a lot of problems, right? Because he's one versus two. This is difficult for any

versus two. This is difficult for any fullback to deal with. But because

Patrick Dorgu is switched on, because he knows how to defend, he was just willing all day to just work up and down the pitch. And again, we've seen 12 months

pitch. And again, we've seen 12 months of Dorgu almost doing shuttle runs down the left side, up and down, up and down.

And again, that almost equipped him with the tools that he needed in this game physically from a fitness point of view to keep making those runs, to keep helping Diego Dallow while still offering all of that threat on the ball

as well.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think Dorgu had an absolute game-breaking performance. I don't suddenly think he's

performance. I don't suddenly think he's one of the best right-sided footballers we've ever seen, but it was lovely at Manchester United at Old Trafford to see, you know, a young player. Dorgi was

still young. Seeing a young player looking more comfortable, looking more confident, and I think you saw the effect that had on his performance. So

often we talk about tactical details and things like that, but at the end of the day, a confident footballer can do things that an anxious footballer can't do, and we saw that in this game. Dorgu

sort of kicked on to the next level. He

looked like that player full of potential that we signed nearly 12 months ago now. He looked like the player that we want him to be someday and that was really fun to see. Now I

think there will be bigger tests to come. You know, United have got some

come. You know, United have got some lesser teams in the next few weeks which will likely sit a little bit deeper.

They may perhaps park the bus at times and United will have to try and break a team down. For Doru, that will be a

team down. For Doru, that will be a different challenge. There will be less

different challenge. There will be less space for him to work with. there will

be more expectancy for him to create.

There will be pressure on him to create for his strikers in the middle and that's where things might be a little bit more difficult for Dorgu. However,

having said that, I do think playing on the right and playing that left footed cross towards the back post might be one that suits him more than the whipped quick cross that he's forced to play

from the left side. Just a minor comment that I want to make, but I think from this right side coming inside onto the left and playing that cross might suit him a little bit more. I think for Dorgu to judge him from an attacking point of

view as a winger though, yeah, the the challenge is in those next three games.

He's not going to reach Bumo and Ahmad levels because he's not that level of attacking player and we shouldn't expect that. But I think what we should expect

that. But I think what we should expect is to see a player again playing with confidence, trying to take his man on, going both ways, coming inside and combining with Mason Mount and also going down the line to play one versus one. I like the balance, the blend that

one. I like the balance, the blend that Dorgu had in this game, and it was really good to see after not playing in this position for so long. It was nice to see those instincts almost sort of immediately come back into his game. He

looked confident. He looked full of himself and that was great to see.

Bigger challenges to come, but he played well. So yeah, basically Du played a

well. So yeah, basically Du played a position he has never played for Manchester United, but actually played it to a really good level. And I think for me he was just about United's man of the match. I certainly think on the ball

the match. I certainly think on the ball he was United's best player. I think he carried up there with the most threat for United, which is really good to see.

big challenges coming or different challenges coming in the next few weeks.

But there is a a right-winger spot for him right now if we are to play a back four or that position is open. Dorgu

could make it his own over the next few weeks and give Ruben Amarim a bit of a selection headache which would be great for Dorgu and it would be great for the squad to have a player in form who can play different positions. That is his

challenge for the next few weeks. But

again, as always, it's now a waiting game to see if he plays that role ever again and if he does, how well he performs. I enjoyed this performance though and thought it deserved a breakdown. But that breakdown is now

breakdown. But that breakdown is now finished. So, we're going to wrap the

finished. So, we're going to wrap the video up there. Thank you guys very much for watching this one. I hope you have enjoyed it. And as always, I'll see you

enjoyed it. And as always, I'll see you in the next