US Lecce are, at the time of writing, sitting 12th in Serie A as they outperform both expectation and budget.
Since they were promoted back to top-flight football at the end of the 21/22 season, part of their success has been their ability to find and recruit good players from markets that typically have little coverage.
This has seen the club recruit the likes of Nikolas Krstović from Slovakia, Ylber Ramadani from Scotland, and Zinedin Smajlović from the Swedish third tier.
There is a very real argument to be made, however, that the best signing that we have seen in recent seasons from Lecce and their much-coveted director of football Pantaleo Corvino has been the reported £200K that they paid to take the Danish left-back Patrick Dorgu from Nordsjaelland.
Fast forward to the midway point in the 23/24 season, and some of Europe’s biggest clubs are casting admiring glances towards Dorgu as he has settled in seamlessly to life in Serie A.
While the noises coming out of the club from the South of Italy so far this season have been largely dismissive of the chances of Dorgu leaving so quickly, the reality is that buying and then selling at a profit is a huge part of the sporting project at the club.
Lecce as a whole, though, are not the topic of this article.
Instead, this Patrick Dorgu scouting report will focus on the performances and profile of Patrick Dorgu as we look to highlight the reasons why we have identified the Danish full-back as one of the players to watch as we enter 2024.
Patrick Dorgu Style Of Play
So far this season, we have seen Dorgu play 582 minutes in Serie A, and as you can see from his pizza chart, he has a balanced profile that slightly skews to the defensive side of the game.
He is a left-back, listed at 185cm | 6’1”, with an athletic build and pace that he can maintain over longer distances.
This physical profile of Dorgu plays into his performances so far at Lecce.
He is a strong ball carrier who is excellent when moving from deep, either off the ball or in possession, in order to attack space in the wide areas.
He is currently in the 88th percentile for left-backs in Europe’s top-five leagues for dribbles per 90.
His defensive output is also strong across the board, as he is in the 84th percentile for defensive duels per 90 and the 80th percentile for the % of defensive duels won.
He is also in the 89th percentile for aerial duels, and the 51st percentile for the % of aerial duels won.
Finally, he is in the 85th percentile for positioning, a combination metric that includes tackles and interceptions.
As you can see, Dorgu has a profile that will fit many top clubs from across Europe in his position.
Patrick Dorgu Running power
One of the biggest strengths we see from Patrick Dorgu for Lecce is his ability to make long forward runs from the left-back position to support the attack in higher positions.
He is an intelligent player who typically takes his starting point and the angle of his run from the position of the player ahead of him.
If there is a player in the attack holding the width, then he will make inverted runs through the half-spaces towards the final third.
If the player ahead of him comes inside, Dorgu will naturally come outside to provide width on the wing.
When he takes possession in the final third, Dorgu will try to drive the play forward either through a progressive and penetrating carry or through a pass that can break the lines.
In this example, we see Dorgu making a long and powerful run forward to support the attack and give his team a forward passing option on the left-hand side.
As the pass is played from the central area out to the player dropping back in from the wide space, we see Dorgu make a third-man run past the man taking possession of the ball.
Dorgu is quick and powerful, so when he makes runs off the ball in this manner, he immediately attracts defenders towards him, creating more space in the final third that his teammates can take advantage of.
This profile of hard running full-back is very attractive to teams in the modern game as they can contribute to opening space for more creative attacking players to take advantage of.
Again, here we see Dorgu making a long run off the ball in order to open up space and attack beyond the opposition defensive line.
As the ball is switched across to the Lecce player positioned out on the left wing, we see Dorgu make a long run past the defender to attack space in the half-space behind the defensive line.
As we have already touched upon, Dorgu is intelligent with the angles of his run, and with the player in possession positioned wide, he makes his run through the half-space to break through an already stretched defensive line.
Patrick Dorgu Passing range
While Patrick Dorgu is a left-back who does most of his best work off the ball when making long runs to access and attack space or when driving forward in possession of the ball, he is still a good passer who can break lines in possession.
This is a side of his game that we have seen him improve massively since he moved to Serie A, having previously been a full-back who was more transactional in nature.
At Lecce, when he is in possession in deeper areas he shows real vision and range to his passing.
We can see an example of this here as Dorgu is holding a deeper position as he receives possession of the ball from a short pass.
In this situation, we can immediately see that the opposition are actually well positioned in a medium to deep defensive block, which is limiting the options for Dorgu.
Previously, we might have seen Dorgu simply take possession in this kind of area before trying to drive and dribble himself.
This time, however, we see the Danish full-back in possession as he drives a pass through the gap between the central defender and the right-back to allow his left-winger to attack from outside to inside.
Once again, here we can see a situation where Dorgu receives the ball wide with opposition players positioned between him and the goal.
As he receives the ball, he immediately opens out and is then able to see the play developing ahead of the ball.
He has the composure and the vision to see teammates run as they are developing ahead of or around him.
In this example, he simply clips the ball around the corner to access the run and puts a teammate behind the defensive line.
Patrick Dorgu Defensive strength
As we have already seen when discussing Patrick Dorgu’s profile earlier on in this article, the defensive side of the game is one area in which Dorgu really stands out.
He is a quick and physically strong full-back who has the ability to defend either tucked inside to support his central defender or when pulled further out and forced to defend 1v1 against quick attacking players.
He is proactive in his defensive approach in terms of looking to regain possession of the ball quickly before the opposition attack can really develop.
We see an example here of how proactive Dorgu is against the ball.
Bologna are looking to develop their attack down his side of the pitch with a forward pass to their attacker, who has pulled out to Dorgu’s side of the pitch.
Dorgu does not simply sit in a passive shape and allow the attacker to receive, nor does he get tight and then simply look to stop the attacking player from being able to turn.
Instead, he is proactive and aggressive in his approach as he gets around the attacking player in order to engage the ball and win back possession for his team early.
He then immediately looks to start a counterattack for Lecce.
Here, we see a combination of Dorgu’s recovery pace, anticipation and aggressive nature when looking to engage and win back possession of the ball.
As Milan are attacking down the Danish defender’s side of the pitch, they play a progressive pass, looking to release the run of their attacking player.
Not only does Dorgu read the danger and match the run, but he also has the pace to get back into position and win the ball before the attack can develop any further.
Once again, as he wins the ball back, he is quick to start a counterattack to release his team to play further forward.
Conclusion
We have already touched upon the fact that signing players at value and selling players for a profit is a critical component of the sporting model at Lecce.
We do not doubt that interest in Patrick Dorgu will be building, but we believe it is extremely unlikely that Lecce will allow him to leave this winter.
Instead, we believe that Dorgu will see out the 23/24 season in the South of Italy before then making a move to a much bigger team.
This is the reason that Patrick Dorgu is one of the players to watch over the course of 2024.
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