After scoring two goals in his first eight Ligue 1 games this season, it may be fair to say that Kasper Dolberg required a small period of time to settle into his new surroundings upon moving to OGC Nice from Ajax last August, becoming the French club’s record transfer signing in the process.
However, the Danish international’s most recent eight Ligue 1 games have been much more positive.
Dolberg has scored a total of six goals in his last eight Ligue 1 appearances, taking his league tally for the 2019/20 season up to 11.
This means that Dolberg has impressively scored more than a quarter of his side’s 41 Ligue 1 goals thus far during the 2019/20 campaign.
Now 22 years old, Dolberg has continued to develop positively at his new club Nice throughout the 2019/20 season.
The well-rounded centre forward continues to look like a player who may be destined to lead the line for a top European team.
In this football tactical analysis piece in the form of a scout report, we will discuss some of the key aspects of Dolberg’s game.
We will provide a tactical analysis of Dolberg’s role within Nice’s tactics, and we will attempt to explain why the 22-year-old forward has played a key role for Arsenal legend and current Nice manager Patrick Vieira’s side this season.
Close-range, first-time goalscoring
As we previously stated in the intro of this scout report, Dolberg has scored more than a quarter of his team’s Ligue 1 goals during the 2019/20 campaign.
The majority of the Danish attacker’s goals this season have come as a result of him getting onto the end of a pass or cross from one of his teammates and performing the duty of putting the finishing touch on an attack at the moment that he first makes contact with the ball.
Dolberg isn’t a player who you will typically see taking on multiple men by himself before finishing the attack.
Instead, the 22-year-old attacker often gets himself into a positive goalscoring position via intelligent off-the-ball movement.
When met with an accurate cross or through ball, Dolberg’s intelligent attacking runs are often effective enough to set him up to send the ball straight into the net with his first touch.
As per understat.com, the Dane has outperformed his expected goals (xG) tally by a total of 2.37 so far during the 2019/20 league season.
This essentially tells us that the forward has scored more goals than would statistically be expected of him based on the quality of chances that have been created for him, according to understat’s metrics.
This tells us that Dolberg has been relatively efficient in front of goal this term.
The Nice forward’s effective attacking runs have played a significant role in helping Dolberg to perform clinically in front of goal this season.
His movement inside the box during the latter stages of his team’s attacks helps him to position himself optimally to create goalscoring chances for himself on a regular basis, which he often finishes first time.
This image above, which is taken from understat, provides us with a map featuring a dot which represents all 11 of Dolberg’s goals from the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season.
As this image shows us, only one of the Nice attacker’s 11 goals have come from outside of the box.
