Patrick Dorgu has been an unexpected beneficiary of Ruben Amorim’s sacking in an entirely new position, and Michael Carrick’s latest comment shows why.
Despite arriving from Lecce in January ’24 as a defensive signing, Patrick Dorgu has found a new lease of life playing as a left winger.
To be fair to Ruben Amorim, the wing-back position in his system was pretty much an attacker too, but Michael Carrick’s latest comment proves Amorim was still setting up Dorgu to fail.
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It is no surprise that the Dane is flourishing after Amorim’s sacking, because, as it turns out, he was making the only possible wrong decision with him.
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Carrick’s short tenure at Old Trafford so far has been refreshing not just because of the team’s performance against Man City, but because he has simplified the game.
Players are being used in their correct positions, given the correct job profile as per their strengths and weaknesses, and then given the confidence to execute it on the pitch.
Dorgu was trusted by Amorim, but he was also at the end of a brutal comment from him when he revealed that he feels “anxious” every time Dorgu has the ball.
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To Dorgu’s credit, he didn’t let it bring him down and worked on his game, but Carrick’s latest comment on the player shows the problem might have been as much due to Amorim as it was due to Dorgu.
He was asked about the player’s ideal position, and he said it was difficult to pin down because he can play as both a winger and a full-back.
He said: “I think he can do both. To be honest, he was immense last week, his work rate and the way he plays the position, but the threat, constant threat, the goal is the obvious one, but his general play was something we’re really pleased about. So I wouldn’t want to pin him down, because I think he can do both, certainly attacking-wise, and that threat, he was pretty impressive last week.”
In a vacuum, that is huge praise from Carrick. However, sift through the surface-level comment and dive deeper into the tactical analysis, and it shows why Amorim was unknowingly setting him up to fail.
Ruben Amorim was setting Dorgu up to fail
As Carrick said, Dorgu has the work rate and threat to play both positions, but that is because both those positions allow him to maximise one of his strengths.
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As a winger, he has athleticism and foul-winning acumen that sees him become a huge asset in the final third, even if his output remains a bit hit-or-miss.
As a full-back, his athleticism helps him again, but so does his history of playing as a left-back, because he is helped by the winger further forward in defending.
Enter Ruben Amorim, who fielded him as a left wing-back, where he was forced to attack more than he was capable of, and not able to defend so much as a result.
The sight of all the final balls falling to Dorgu and Diogo Dalot became a familiar one under Amorim, turning the pair into a lightning rod for criticism as they kept wasting chances.
The reality is that Dorgu was overstretched in the attacking phase, and that didn’t allow him to stretch as much defensively.
It sums up Amorim’s tenure that a player who is comfortable playing as a winger and a full-back was fielded at the only position he struggled to play in – wing-back.
Square pegs in round holes is how Amorim will be remembered at Old Trafford. Add Patrick Dorgu to that list of players, which already includes the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, and Luke Shaw, among others.
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