What will former Swansea midfielder Yan Dhanda bring to Ross County? – scout report

Ross County’s signing of former Swansea City midfielder Yan Dhanda has been one of the most eye-catching deals of the Scottish summer transfer window so far.

The Dingwall club reportedly beat off competition from clubs in the EFL Championship and MLS to land the former England under-17 international on a two-year deal earlier this month.

Dhanda, who started his youth career at West Bromwich Albion before spending five years in Liverpool’s academy, fell out of favour at the Liberty Stadium last season making just seven appearances as his contract ran down.

However, he made 27 appearances and racked up 1,447 league minutes the season before as the Swans only narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, losing out in the play-off final at Wembley to Brentford.

Ross County manager Malky MacKay has now convinced 23-year-old Dhanda that the Scottish Premiership is the best place for him to rediscover some of the form he showed in the 2020/21 season.

In this tactical analysis piece, in the form of a scout report, we will take a closer look at Dhanda’s playing style. It will be an analysis of Dhandas statistics from his time at Swansea, as well as his role in the Swans tactics to assess just how big an impact he could have in Scotland this coming season.

Player profile

Dhanda is a right-footed central attacking midfielder (CAM). Under Steve Cooper at Swansea in 2020/21, Dhanda was most often used as the ‘10’ behind the two main strikers in Cooper’s favoured 3-4-1-2. He was also used as a central midfielder on occasion.

A natural attacking midfielder though, Dhanda has excellent ball control and is most dangerous dropping in between the lines. Comfortable with his back to goal too, he is capable of either playing the ball back with one touch or turning and looking to shoot.

He likes drifting into the half-spaces to receive the ball so as to carry the ball further up field or cross into the box. He very much favours the left halfspace, as we can see in the above heatmap from the season before last.

Drifting into these areas allows Dhanda to get on the ball and open up the right side of the pitch on his stronger right foot, where he can drive forward to take a shot or play a through ball for a teammate.

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