Lorran is a young left-footed attacking player for Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. He made his senior debut for the club in the Campeonato Carioca, the regional tournament for the Rio de Janeiro State, at just 17 years of age.
He then went on to make a total of four appearances in this competition, playing the entirety of a 1-1 draw away to Bangu, where he went on to score his first senior goal.
In this article, we will look at some of the reasons why elite clubs like Manchester Utd and Chelsea are monitoring the Brazil U-17 international. In this tactical analysis, we will pick apart some of the footage from his U-20 and U-17 performances for Flamengo, alongside his performances for Brazil U-17 and see what makes him such an intriguing prospect.
In Possession
In his four first-team appearances, Lorran has tended to play in the midfield more like a no 8. However, while playing for the Flamengo U20’s side and Brazil’s U17s, he has more often been deployed as an attacking player as a winger, forward and attacking midfielder, playing more as a no.10. This just shows his potential versatility in attack.
In attack, his most dangerous attribute is his ability to be a powerful, dynamic runner on the ball who can really progress the ball forward. He could be a little sloppy regarding his footwork in that the defenders could make contact with the ball. However, he was so strong and powerful that he could retain the ball and keep driving forward.
Above is an excellent example of how difficult Lorran can handle. In this example, he has already driven forwards 10-15m forwards with the ball; then, he rides two opponents’ challenges as he looks to cut in from the right to the left. After riding the challenges, he can play an attacking left-footed ball to his teammate, who finishes it.
One of Lorran’s most exciting attributes is his positivity in possession and genuine intention to try to play the ball forward and create chances. His ability to do this in various ways — through balls, crosses, one-touch passing combinations, etc — is impressive.
Above is an example of how Lorran can be used to develop attacks using combination play. As he receives the ball, he plays a firstt time, left-footed ball back to a teammate over the top of the defence. Then, the player receiving the ball over the top squares the ball across for a teammate to finish off.
Here is an example of Lorran playing a left-footed inswinging corner from the right side in the U17 CONMEBOL Championship. It results in a goal from a near post header by Kaua Elias.
A further impressive attribute demonstrated by Lorran was his ability to shoot powerfully with both feet. With a number of his goals being scored by his right foot, there is also an excellent example of how he can use his left foot to hit the ball powerfully and score a great goal, in fact tending to favour cutting in onto his naturally strong left foot.
In the above example, he beats the defender on the outside, creating the space to hit the shot with his right foot and then finishes it off with his left foot.
In this example, he picks up a loose ball at the edge of the box as the opposition tries to clear the ball away. He picks up the ball, takes two touches to get the ball out of his feet, and then hits a powerful left-footed shot into the bottom left corner.
This ability to use both feet adds to his flexibility in playing on both wings and taking on defenders going both ways. However, we must caution that at the moment, with him not demonstrating a high level of crossing ability so far, he is often looking to cut in rather than take on defenders down the line.
Out of Possession
Defensively, he can win the ball high up the field, averaging 2.74 regains in the opposition half per 90. This could make him a precious asset given how the elite teams, at the moment, like to push high up the field and put quality pressure on opponents’ backlines.
In his first team appearances for Flamengo playing as an LCM, he was asked to be really tight to the opposition pivots in the build-up phase and was able to show examples of how he could potentially be deployed.
In the above example, Lorran is asked to mark the opposition pivot as they look to build from the back. He completes his assignment and then converges on the ball as his striker teammate forces a mistake. The ball eventually falls to Lorran, where he scores his first senior goal, rocketing the ball into the top right corner with his right foot.
Alternatively, he wasn’t asked to mark as tightly in a more zonal pressing role when playing as an RW for the Junior sides. Also, note how the shape is so much narrower than you would see of typical European elite sides.
In this example, you can see Lorran’s defensive positioning as an RW for the junior side as he is no longer tasked with being tight to an opponent, but instead, Flamengo’s priority appears to be compact and narrow. Lorran’s role is to remain in that shape with more of a zonal marking responsibility. This play eventually results in the right-footed goal from the previous section for some added context.
Alongside these examples of him pressing high up the field. There are several examples of how he has a good work rate working back to help out his team deep in defence. Although he isn’t tasked with the responsibility of defending in the deep shape it’s still ingrained in his mind that he wants to work hard defensively and could have more of an impact in this side of the game.
In this above example, you can see Lorran identifying the threat of the no.10 in the space just outside the box. He then has the foresight to work back and get in front of the opponent, intercept the pass and then clear the ball out for a corner.
Transition
One of Lorran’s most significant areas of strength is his ability in defence-attack transition. With his previously stated ability to drive forward with speed and be strong enough to ride challenges, he is able to progress the ball forward. Then, when defenders are inevitably drawn towards him on the ball, he has the quality to play progressive balls to keep the attacks moving forward.
This is an example of what Lorran can do on the counter-attack. With Brazil U-17 having just won the ball back, he drove forward a few metres, then launched this through ball to Lorran in behind the defence. He then demonstrates the speed to reach the ball and strength to ride a slide tackle by the defender before rounding the goalkeeper and passing the ball into the net with his right foot.
Above is an example of what he can do with the added space available in transition, engaging the defender in front of him and essentially isolating him 2v1, then executing his pass to attack the space behind the defender with this pass, resulting in an assist.
Lorran’s size and power also make him useful in the midfield, particularly with loose balls in the midfield. If you combine his ability to pick up loose balls with his ability to get the ball forward effectively, this is a real quality weapon in his arsenal.
Above is an example of how he can be useful in attack-defence transition, with the loose ball in the top picture with two opposition defenders against him alone. After about a four-second battle for the ball, he eventually takes control of it, then he turns away from the defenders and now has created space to potentially run into or even pass #7 to recycle the ball.
Strengths
Lorran has lots of positive qualities that translate to the senior level. Some of his most impressive qualities are his strength on the ball, being listed around 5ft 8in (173cm) and weighing around 72kg (159 lbs.) However, the honest answer is he looks taller, faster and stronger than a lot of his opponents in U20 and U17 football, so he is more significant than these listed figures are, and he looks closer to 6ft than that. Seeing how his physical strengths may translate into the senior game as the disparity narrows will be interesting.
Another of his most impressive attributes is his attitude. He is brave on the ball in possession and constantly tries to play forward and create things for his teammates. Also, defensively, though, he works hard off the ball, gets engaged, and is stuck into physical challenges and battles.
Above is an example of an incredible ball Lorran played for Brazil U-17s; he cuts inside and then plays this perfect ball over the top of the defence for his striker to run onto. The striker then takes one touch and then finishes it off.
The above example is just about the most impressive goal I’ve seen him score, demonstrating a combination of many skills. At the top, you see him identify the overexerted body position of the defender. As a result, his first touch is inside the defender, who cannot stop his momentum and turn in time. Then he plays a through ball for #8 with a casual outside-of-the-foot left-footed flick. Then he continues his run into the huge gap available for the cutback pass, which he calmly passes into the back of the net for a goal.
One of his most valuable assets at the next level could be his ability to play several positions, already demonstrating his ability to play as a central striker, attacking midfielder, deeper midfielder and right/left winger. Superficially, he reminds us of somebody like Joelinton or Moussa Sissoko, who were/are direct, solid, powerful runners in possession who work hard off the ball. Throughout their respective careers, they also played out wide and as more central midfielders as well.
Areas of Improvement
Lorran is still a young player, at 17, and although he has some impressive attributes, he can improve in some areas.
First of all, we like how he’s always trying things and looking to create, but if he can tighten things up in this aspect so that teammates are played into the best positions and momentum is not lost he could be an even more dangerous player.
Above is an example of poor execution on the final ball by Lorran. In this example, the red line demonstrates the ball that was played, which gets stifled by defenders; however, a better ball would have been to lead the striker into the space and enable him to run onto the ball.
In the above example, you can see how much space is available for his teammate to target, but the ball executed by Lorran has far too much power on it, and as a result, he only just keeps it in the field of play.
The next thing he could work on is his ability to receive the ball with his back to the goal, mainly being consistent with his first touch and ball control. This would enable him to be an asset, particularly as a no.10, but also as a wide player, as it could allow him to receive the ball between the lines, where he can then cause havoc from there.
In the above situation, he receives a high ball, which falls at his feet. He gets the ball under considerable physical duress from behind him, but this was sufficient for a misplaced heavy touch, which fell to the opponent nearby. He could take his game to another level again if he could bring this down and link to teammates.
Conclusion
Lorran has a lot of really promising attributes, and you can see why clubs like Manchester Utd and Chelsea are monitoring him already. A lot of what happens next will come down to his development from here as he’s still very young and raw, though. All we know for sure is it’ll be well worth watching his development over the next few years very closely.
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