Much more involved in the game
“We are playing with more confidence, we are combining more and we are running and fighting for each other. The level has increased compared to last week. Let’s build on that.” His statement targets his team but sums up exactly what has changed in his leader in two meetings under David Hubert.
The new coach knows that there is more to Dolberg than what he has shown since the start of the season. He therefore chose to involve him more in the game. The Dane broke away more to claim the ball. Zanka was also instructed to contact him as soon as possible. The defender played vertically towards his attacker several times. The rest happens in one step with the classic: delivery towards a midfielder, offensive projection. “We had discussed this possibility because if I can be reached, it means that we are in a good position on the ground.”Dolberg said. Everything wasn’t perfect, but we saw him demanding the ball more than usual.
Coal in loss of ball
And when he didn’t get the ball, he went after it. This season, Dolberg has never intercepted and recovered as many balls as against Ferencvaros. One statistic among others but which suggests that the striker understood that he had to do more. He had already had a heated discussion with Brian Riemer last April. His former coach had asked him to be more involved, particularly in counter-pressing.
Hubert demands the same thing. The organization is important to him and the attacker is the first defender in his mind. This even pushed the usual Mr. Clean to take a yellow card during a slightly botched pressing.
Good news for Anderlecht and Francis Amuzu but we have to give Jan Vertonghen time
Better accompanied in front
Okay, Dolberg is working. Now he has to score too. He hasn’t done it fully since August 10. “You can tell: it’s been a really long time.”he smiled after planting his penalty in the Europa League. A goal that he celebrated with more rage than usual. The lack was felt.
The Dane is not the only one responsible for his lack of statistics. Against Charleroi, he didn’t even try his luck on goal once. And in the three Pro League matches in September, he totaled less than one expected goal (0.76). Against Ferencvaros, he had 0.4 if we remove his penalty. “Everything is easier for me when it works better for the whole team. We couldn’t create enough chances. And when we did, the finishing wasn’t there.”
Hubert is aware that alone in front, Dolberg is useless. He adapted his tactics to use him better and make him play. “There were more teammates in the rectangle, more proximity with my teammates. I’m better when I have players to combine with.” We must now transform good intentions into statistics.
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