Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has explained why he elected to deploy new signing Patrick Dorgu at right-wing-back as opposed to the left, where many expected him to play.
Dorgu joined United before the close of the winter transfer window. He emerged as Amorim’s top target for the left-wing-back position and the club managed to agreed a deal with Lecce for him to seal a switch to Old Trafford.
The Denmark international was named in the starting XI for Friday’s FA Cup fourth-round victory over Leicester.
Joshua Zirkzee and Harry Maguire both scored in the second half to overturn Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s strike just before the break.
Despite the win, it was a tepid performance from the Red Devils, as Amorim himself admitted in an interview with ITV.
However, debutant Dorgu still caught the eye with a fine performance, in which glimpses of his quality and high potential were evident.
In his post-match presser, Amorim was asked why he elected to start Dorgu on the right and not the left. The United head coach replied, “He played a lot of times for Lecce on the right and on the left. That is one of the characteristics we pay attention to.”
“He was a little bit anxious with his touches on the ball. It’s a different league for him…a different speed of the game but he did well. He has pace, he has strength and he’s going to improve a lot and we as a team need to play better to help these new guys to perform at the right level.”
“But the position, and you can see on Wyscout, he can play on both sides.”
Asked whether he played Dorgu nearer the touchline so he could be closer to him and issue real-time instructions, Amorim answered, “No no it was not that. I was giving a lot of information because you can see sometimes in building up, the left defender, the full-back is higher up.”
“So we make like one pressure to one side and then they change completely for this game and we have to manage to change everything. So I was trying to help Dorgu to manage the game and he’s had like three training sessions, so it’s really hard for him.”
“If you see Dorgu’s history in his last team, he also played a lot of games on the right and we have to have wingers that can play on both sides like Diogo Dalot. So I think it’s a really important thing because sometimes you need a left-footer on the right side to come inside in a different way and sometimes you need a right-footer to connect and to cross more balls, so it’s like that.”
On Rasmus Hojlund’s frustrations with the lack of service, Amorim remarked, “A striker needs a very good team to deliver very good balls for him and we are not helping our strikers at the moment.”
On how close Alejandro Garnacho came to leaving in the summer and how happy he is to have him in the team, Amorim pointed out, “That’s not important. We want players like Garnacho. He’s really important, he changed the game today with the runs behind. The opponent was tired in the second half to stop him on the 1v1.
“Leicester were tired in the second half to face and stop Alejandro Garnacho, especially on 1v1.”
United are back in action on Sunday, February 16 when they travel to London to face Tottenham Hotspur.
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
