Patrick Berg 2021/22 scout report: What should Lens fans expect from their ‘absolute bargain’ signing?

Lens completed Ligue 1’s first major incoming transfer of the 2022 January transfer window when they announced the signing of Patrick Berg (175cm/5’9”, 70kg/154lbs) from Bodø/Glimt in mid-December, with the right-footed 24-year-old central midfielder having just captained his side to a second straight Norwegian Eliteserien title.

Captain Berg played a key role for his team this term, with his 2401 league minutes making him Bodø/Glimt’s fifth-most used player in the league this season. Berg also scored five goals and made five assists in his 31 appearances in all competitions for Bodø/Glimt this season, with three of those goals and three of those assists coming in the league. Berg notably scored one of his side’s goals in their emphatic 6-1 home UEFA Europa Conference League win in October versus José Mourinho’s Serie A side Roma, a win that helped Bodø/Glimt to finish the Conference League group stage in second place, trailing only Roma, booking the Norwegian side a place in the first knockout round in which they’ll face Scottish giants Celtic.

Before moving to Lens, Berg had also been linked to Celtic in reports, along with Turkish giants Galatasaray. However, the central midfielder has ultimately opted to make Stade Bollaert-Delelis his January destination where hell compete domestically with the likes of PSG, Marseille, Lyon and Lille. This has been described as a ‘shrewd’ move from Lens by some, with Spanish-speaking French football expert Andrés Onrubia Ramos going so far as to say that this €4m move is “an absolute bargain seeing the player’s potential”.

My aim with this tactical analysis and scout report is to provide Lens fans and Ligue 1 fans with a comprehensive breakdown of Berg, as a player. I hope to paint a clear picture of Berg and what he can offer Lens via this scout report. With this tactical analysis piece, I aim to highlight some of the key strengths and potential areas of improvement within the nine-cap Norway international’s game, as well as touch on how he may fit in for Franck Haise’s Les Sang et Or strategy and tactics. All stats and data used in this tactical analysis come from Wyscout unless stated otherwise.

Passing

Berg’s passing is the most interesting part of his game, for me. There are many strengths to his passing game and from a data perspective, this part of his game stands out more than any other. I’d be comfortable saying Berg is an asset in terms of ball retention and ball progression. With Bodø/Glimt, the 24-year-old was a high-volume passer, playing 58.1 passes per 90 this season (very high among Eliteserien central midfielders who played at least 600 minutes in 2021), with an equally very high 89.81% success rate.

Per Wyscout, a pass is ‘progressive’ if “the distance between the starting point and the next touch is 1. at least 30 meters closer to the opponent’s goal if the starting and finishing points are within a team’s own half, 2. at least 15 meters closer to the opponent’s goal if the starting and finishing points are in different halves, or 3. at least 10 meters closer to the opponent’s goal if the starting and finishing points are in the opponent’s half”.

Berg ranks highly in progressive passes amongst Eliteserien central midfielders for 2021, having played 7.5 per 90 with an impressive 77.5% success rate. He also plays plenty of successful passes into the final third (8.47 per 90, with an 84.57% success rate).

For me, Berg is at his best when playing in a deep playmaking position on the edge of the final third when his team is in the chance creation phase, playing versus a low-block. In this phase, the opposition will typically be packed into a compact low-block on the edge of their penalty box and by sitting deep on the edge of the final third, Berg can enjoy some time and space on the ball with runners ahead of him looking to receive a pass.

Figure 1 shows an example of Berg performing this role on the edge of the final third in the chance creation phase for Bodø/Glimt this season. In this example, while Bodø/Glimt progressed upfield, Berg sat deeper, just in front of his side’s backline, as he often does, with Berg typically playing as a sole holding midfielder in Bodø/Glimt’s 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3) formation this term. As his team moved into the final third, they forced the opposition back into the low-block we see here and this created space on the edge of the final third for Berg to push into, receive the ball, get his head up and pick out a runner into the opposition’s penalty area ahead of him, as we see above.

In this particular example, Berg showed off some impressive passing technique by delicately lofting a through ball into the path of the attacker running into the box from the left-wing. The pass was played with appropriate height so that it beat all the defenders between the two Bodø/Glimt players but also with enough care that it arrived into the path of the attacker without falling short or running too long. This is an example of Berg’s technical passing ability — he’s great at threading the ball through a tight space and he’s capable of playing creative, line-breaking passes while under pressure with precision. These skills, along with his initial intelligent off-the-ball movement and his vision, make him an excellent asset in this role in the chance creation phase.