For me, Patrick Dorgu was probably the best player on the pitch in the first half. Now, that is not exactly saying much as it was like watching a dung beetle doing his thing up a steep hill. However, he should energy, drive, willingness to get into the play and not just drift through the 45 minutes. Prior to his move, Lecce played him on the right so I can understand why Ruben Amorim wanted him as settled as possible for his first run out. Kept him close to his technical area and let him ease his way into the atmosphere. In time, he will likely be used on the left, in the troublesome LWB role that United have needed fixing for some time. Good luck to the lad.
Patrick Dorgu | 2024/25 Performances
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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He looked bigger and stronger than all our other players. We need more of that profile for the PL
17Larsson "He looked bigger and stronger than all our other players. We need more of that profile for the PL"
Motion seconded mate! Aimlessly launching long cross field passes toward the tiny terrors and Rasmus Happyontheland is not the way forward. Dorgu looks like he will not be bullied
Motion seconded mate! Aimlessly launching long cross field passes toward the tiny terrors and Rasmus Happyontheland is not the way forward. Dorgu looks like he will not be bullied
Will playing his role even be the same at left back
It's not really acceptable to unbalance the whole team to micromanage a new signing.
I really doubt coaching a player during the game is that helpful either
Agreed. I couldn't understand why he was taken off.
Coaching him to play a role that he’s hopefully not going to play would seem an odd choice. What would he have done if we’d lost the toss and he’d been on the far side of the pitch first half - then played him LWB? I somehow doubt that the coin toss was the point at which we decided who was playing where.
Surely they talked and said he would get one half to feel out the tempo and stuff. He was a bit too motivated imo it was good to just give him one half.
He does look a unit doesn’t he. I would have liked him to have been 15 yard higher up the pitch though for his starting position! Excited to see more of him, but would like to see him played on the left side.
I felt his positioning was mostly good when we were in possession.
It seemed he was too deep when the opposition had it though. He was back close to Yoro and the two of them only had one attacker to deal with, whereas Amad was then having to try to cover two players. If Dorgu had pushed up to take the winger it then would have allowed Amad to push up and put pressure on the defender. In saying that, people are saying Amorim was spending a lot of time talking to Dorgu so maybe that's what he wanted? Would seem strange though.
If it’s true that he played RB because Amorim wanted to coach him through the game, it would have been interesting to know if we won the toss. If we did, we could have played right to left and had him on his LWB role. I wonder if Amorim went in to the game happy to have the wingbacks switched no matter what.
Physically reminds me a shade of Valencia. Hard to bully for a fullback even if the opposing striker is a unit.
He felt like a breath of fresh air yesterday but that is usually the case with new signings. He needs time to settle in, it normaly takes us 3-6 months to turn them into shit.
We desperately more players with that kind of physicality. Especially in midfield. The trick is finding the ones that also have technique.
Said it from the beginning that don't be surprised if he starts on the right.
He looks like a big unit and did okish. Too early to form any opinions based on that.
He looks like a big unit and did okish. Too early to form any opinions based on that.
Looks suspect technically but quite good athletically especially for his age. Way too early to tell
Not saying this will or should happen but watching the game and was in discussion with mates and we seemed to all agree we need his kind of player in MF.
Although he did seem to tire as the game went on he was full of running and covered some good ground. Seemed to read the play well too.
He looks a unit and we (some of my friends and me) have felt that out MF are a bit light weight. Ugarte since he signed not so much but definitely Bruno and Kobbie.
I don't mind him playing as RWB, the issue is, atm that means that we have to still watch Dalot meander around aimlessly at LWB... so maybe if they switch sides, our attack will become better. Or Amad RWB and Dorgu LWB and Bruno back up as the 10 with Garnacho.
He's going to keep starting him on the right now isn't he?
Perfect metaphor for how it will be if Dorgu continues to play RWB
I’m pretty worried that is what will happen. If I’m not mistaken we even saw Malacia subbed on the right with Dalot staying on the left in the last Europa game. This could indicate that Amorim really favors inverted wingbacks.
Not sure where this is coming from because Amorim actually denied this in his post match press conference.
This is what I was thinking. But it wouldn’t really work as we have pretty inverted wingers/AMs. Garnacho and Amad won’t work with Dalot and Dorgu on the same side. We need the Wing backs to be in there natural position so they can overlap when the AMs are inside.
Perfect metaphor for how it will be if Dorgu continues to play RWB
If it works then fans will be fine with it but for the moment I think people are so angry with the left back situation (Shaw's constant injuries, Dalot being poor there, Malacia under performing) that it's just another cause of frustration.
Solid debut. Looked to have struck a good partnership with Yoro which could be left side (LCB/LWB) for next decade.
But Dalot has created nothing all season and he's had Amad and Antony to inverse on the right and he sold Antony. We are badly badly lacking width on the left. more than any other one obvious factor I feel like that's what making our attacks so predictable and blunt and always so congested in the middle. Surely if your fullbacks invert then your 10s need to go wider at the very least? Cutbacks are one of the easiest ways to score these days too. I think he's rotating too much too. I don't think that even by now he knows his best team or who he's going to be selling in the summer. Hopefully things settle down over the rest of this month but I can't see it. We look confused all over the park
Which is really not that good. I understand that he hasn't had enough time in training, but you'd think concepts would start being embedded in the team by now. Instead our players still looked confused at what they should be doing. Hopefully it gets better now with a proper lwb but I don't know if one player is really going to fix things in time
Tbf this happens with all the fullbacks when they play there. Even Amad sometimes. We go to press and when the press is beaten you realise we have 5 players back marking 2 or 3 players. Its either an instruction from Amorim or he's clearly not getting his message across. Its part of the reason we got dominated by Newcastle and Southampton, we have 2 to 3 defenders back marking nobody whilst the front 3 try to press.
Yeah it's one of the most difficult things when converting full backs to wing backs. As the wing back you have to be convinced it's fine to let someone in behind you because in theory the centre backs should be fine moving across to cover, meaning the wing back can actually go all the way to press the opponent's full back. It's basically the opposite of what you're used to.
Well I can promise you I watched him do it. There were times that he sat in deep in a flat back line whilst they played out from the back and Amorim was telling him to be further up to press, various things like that. I suppose he’s not had a lot of time with him on the training ground so just wanted to help him understand the sort of positions he wanted him to take up.
It’s the same role but on the other side? Just press at the same moments, drop at the same moments etc. I’m guessing he’d have swapped them over. I said watching the game at the ground that he was talking to him non stop and that might be why he played him that side, and then the Athletic basically confirmed it. Dalot could have easily just moved to the right no?
Besides, we don’t even know which side he prefers to play or we intend him to play, just a load of assumptions so far. Let’s just see what happens before declaring it a bad move, when he actually put in a decent enough little cameo too.
This. The journalist from The Athletic asked him if it was part of the reason Dorgu was playing on the right, and Amorim said no.
Thank you. No clue on manager's thought process then. Having said that, its not like we were lighting it up on RWB either, so its a relief to know that Maz is likely to transition to CBs.
Lesson learnt - Its maz for me henceforth.
I don’t blame you. I found it much easier spelling Mkhitaryan. All the vowels make it very difficult
But not sure why he’d start on the right and continue playing Dalot out of position on the left. Probably Amad on the right and Dorgu left would make more sense
We signed him and before he even kicked the ball someone already made a chant 'who let the dorg out'.
So if he ends up not living up to expectations we know who needs to be banned and what kind of threads need banning in the future.
I'm not pointing fingers I'm being very consavartive.
So if he ends up not living up to expectations we know who needs to be banned and what kind of threads need banning in the future.
I'm not pointing fingers I'm being very consavartive.
Much more direct and dynamic than what we have seen in a long time
I wonder if Amorim would ever want to try four inverted players if he had the players for it
interesting idea
interesting idea
That was how we started on Friday.
ah okay cool, I didn't watch the game, that's very interesting. I assumed he'd bought Dorgu to play on the left mostly.
I quite like it as a concept. It means both full-back's are defending against an inverted attacker with their dtronger foot. And also gives us a bunch of different attacking angles to work with.
It was probably planned. Give him an half to get use to the tempo and stuff.