Who Is Darío Osorio?
Darío Osorio is experimenting with a new role at Midtjylland.
The 20-year-old has fine tuned his technique, becoming a top offensive player in possession because of his ball-striking, varied range of passes, and capacity to progress from different heights and channels.
Thomas Thomasberg —Midtjylland’s coach— has noticed and decided to give some degree of freedom of movement to Osorio.
Now, the Chilean international is more versatile in the opposition’s half.
While he is still growing in European football and with Ricardo Gareca’s Chilean senior national team, Darío Osorio has already shown his potential at his former team, Universidad de Chile.
After 51 appearances at Universidad de Chile, Midtjylland signed Osorio and brought him to Denmark, where has had to adapt to a new idiom, culture, and place.
In this Dario Osorio scout report and tactical analysis, we are going to provide an analysis of Darío Osorio’s profile, the new tactics he is implementing and their potential impact on Midtjylland and Chile’s senior national team.
Darío Osorio Style Of Play & Kicking Technique
Darío Osorio’s technique is his best weapon.
He is a constant threat to complete key passes or shots because of his fantastic ball-striking.
He is frequently starting from wide positions.
On the left side, he finds many ways to pull off crosses from dangerous zones and he is accurate in making it out-swinging.
On the right side, as usual, he has a very variable repertoire of skills to find good angles after he receives and executes in-swinging/half-space crosses, including running in behind and assisting with crosses from the final line.
His left foot is as privileged as he is the set-piece taker at Midtjylland.
So, every indirect free kick or corner is a menace when he takes it.
When shooting, every angle in front of the box from the right vertex to the middle means an opportunity to shoot with great power and curve to the far post, and from the other vertex to the middle, his shooting is dry, powerful, and direct.
As the image below shows, it is his most dangerous position to shoot.
Despite being a winger who is very involved in the previous phase to the final, his goalscoring ability is impressive.
He has scored 10 goals since he is at Mitdjylland in every competitions — 36 appearances, 1988′ played.
Dario Osorio Position At Mitdjylland
Osorio has always shown his capacity for incursion through inner channels because of his tact with the ball, driving and passing in tight or open spaces—starting from wide and then attacking inside.
Progressively, his impact in the right half-spaces has been developing.
His decision-making, excellent ball control when carrying, and passing range have made him a more central attacker than ever.
After a year at Mitdjylland, Thomas Thomasberg has given him the freedom to ‘float’ around the opposition half.
He starts as a right winger, but he has the freedom to come in through the central channel—then accelerate the play with his ball-carrying—and move into half-spaces between the lines, including occasionally switching his position and activating himself on the left side, as his heatmap below shows.
Dario Osorio Heat Map
These dynamics are natural; his reading and instincts dictate his positioning.
The intention? Find him as the free man.
If Darío has time to think and his teammates are making runs in or opening passing lanes, he is —usually— going to complete advantage in possession to progress.
Nevertheless, Darío is constantly looking for progress faster, taking risks, and sometimes making mistakes with complex passes or carries.
His ball-carrying is another great register—one more resource to advance in possession.
He is a winger who makes it difficult to steal the ball; he always has the ball close to him, and his athletic legs and pace are a big threat.
Dario Osorio Penetrating Carries Map
In addition, his dribble is worthy of a pure winger.
He can get involved in first passes, receive under pressure, and win duels by dribbling, using body gestures to confuse his rival and evade him, and he can also use the touchline in his favour.
Dario Osorio Attacking Phase
As in the attacking phase, Darío Osorio is a big threat when he has spaces to attack quickly by running in behind or combining with a few passes.
He is a very active player in every sense, with an offensive mentality, for sure, as the sequence below shows.
In this sequence, Darío is watchful of the defensive phase.
Attracting his mark and slowly creating space.
His teammate anticipates his pair with an electric run when he makes a clearance.
Then, he wins the possession and proposes a take-on with the next defender in transition.
In this case, he lost the duel, but these types of actions are frequent in his football.
He detects —or creates— easy mismatches after recovery and attacks spaces as fast as he can.
Also, in offensive transitions, Osorio competes in every channel on the pitch.
His impressive pace driving with the ball and the space he created previously ends sometimes in 1v1 situations vs the goalkeeper.
So this is an ideal tool when his team defends deep.
Dario Osorio Defensive Phase
As he is a weapon that attacks and counterattacks, his energetic status is valid in every phase, as his radar below shows.
Darío Osorio is a committed player in the defensive phase.
However, as mentioned, his naturality is that of an attacker, so he is better at high-pressing or counterpressing.
When the team decides to press higher, he jumps aggressively to his mark.
After his teammates force the rival to play wide and he defends as a winger—almost always—Osorio uses the touchline during the press to force mistakes or clearances from his mark.
The aggressiveness of his pressing is transferred to his defensive duels, trying to steal the ball with intensity.
Dario Osorio High Regains Map
This register causes some fouls, but he is a defensive guarantee in a team that wants to take risks far from his box.
Dario Osorio Player Profile
Osorio is tall, considering the type of player he is—he is 1.84m—but his body crashing to impose himself in aerial duels or retain the ball while hiding it is not an essential part of his football.
His aerial play is also not good, so to play long balls to him, you must look for spaces in behind, never for aerial duels, despite his numbers being not bad in terms of effectiveness.
However, his lower body is already crucial to exploiting his abilities.
His long legs and lighter power body allow his great velocity top.
His physique could develop to be slightly bigger, but he already has a good biotype to keep growing.
Is Dario Osorio Good For Chile?
Ricardo Gareca in Chile has been building a little ‘relationist’ team when they arrive in the last third.
His undoubted plan has been to accumulate Víctor Dávila, Alexis Sánchez, Eduardo Vargas, and one more offensive player overloading the ball side with the isolated fullback closing narrow.
So Gareca is trying to consolidate dynamics between his offensive players by crossing heights/channels with each other and combining them with complementary movements.
As it has happened, it seems like Darío Osorio could be the final member of these four places in Chile’s last third.
The entire team has been evolving to attack fluidly, but dynamics are still ‘news’. So they have to keep playing, and Gareca should print freedom to everyone, as he has tried sometimes.
Nevertheless, Chile has found some dangerous situations through set pieces, considering that live ball play has been a little stagnant.
In that sense, Osorio will always contribute to this Chile Senior National Team.
With more confidence, he will improve in big scenarios, well he already has the aggressiveness that South American football requires.
Conclusion
In his second season at Midtjylland, Darío Osorio should assume a much more central role.
As aforementioned, Osorio is not a traditional winger; he is a modern and smart tactician who could contribute to any team with high/counterpressing.
He prints a mix of top ball-striking in static actions and competes accurately in actions that require so much velocity in decisions and running.
Since he was at Universidad de Chile, he has shown his talent.
Now, he is denoting this talent in European competitions, still adapting to a different context compared with Chile, and preparing for the next big step—well, he is not even 20 years old yet.
Talents like this are rare and, therefore, invaluable.
Besides this, he has to keep gaining minutes and experience.
Thomas Thomasberg and Ricardo Gareca rough diamond to exploit.
Hopefully, they are not going to dismiss this chance, and Osorio’s profile will keep developing successfully.
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