<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > introduction</h1>
In recent years, Red Bull Salzburg has had a unique vision in finding outstanding young players, who have also paid off handsomely for the club. Zambian striker Patterson Dhaka, 22, looks set to be the next superstar to emerge from Red Bull Salzburg, who also joined Leicester City this summer for a transfer fee of £23 million.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > roles on the field compared to the data</h1>
Daka, who excelled in the right foot, played the role of one of the two centre-forwards in Red Bull Salzburg's 4-2-2 formation system. Although Rodgers is better at 4-2-3-1 formations, he has used a 3-5-2 formation system for most of last season, and Ikhnaccio and Vardy are his most trusted striker combinations. After Dhaka arrives, he may need a little time to adapt to this new tactical system. From the heat map of the on-field activity below, we can see that Dhaka prefers to play in the right-third of the area of the frontcourt, in part because he has played as a right-winger for most of his career.
Dhaka scored 34 goals in 3,042 minutes of playing for Red Bull Salzburg last season, while he was able to contribute a staggering 1.01 goals to the team in 90 minutes. If you think it's just a flash in the pan, you're dead wrong. Dhaka scored 27 goals for the team in 2019/20, averaging 0.85 goals per 90 minutes. Two consecutive seasons of consistent output on the offensive end have demonstrated Dhaka's super-high goal efficiency.
Dhaka's xG values over the past two seasons have been 28.77 and 23.62 respectively, and such a high xG value also reflects how good his ability to take chances is, which is one of the main reasons Leicester City sees him as a substitute for Vardy. Next, we will compare some data indicators to see what position Dhaka is in among the strikers in Europe's five major leagues. In the first chart below, we compare the number of non-penalty goals per 90 minutes and the xG value per 90 minutes.
Players marked in the green circle in the chart are under the age of 23, while players marked in the red circle are over the age of 23. We can see that Dhaka was already one of the most efficient top scorers in Europe last season, and his stats are even more impressive than what we mentioned above. Dhaka is second in both indicators, with him trailing Bayern's Lewandowski and Atalanta's Muriel. Muriel played as a substitute striker for most of last season at Atalanta, which is why he scored so many non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, so Dhaka still has the highest scoring efficiency for a striker who is the team's regular starter. Another thing worth paying attention to is that among the under-23 players, Dhaka is even better than Haaland and Mbappe in these two statistics.
In the next chart above, we compare the number of shots per 90 minutes and the number of touches in the penalty area, while the size of each circle in the chart represents the percentage of shots shot by the target. We can intuitively see that Dhaka is once again at the top of the list in these two data indicators, which shows that he is a huge threat to the opposing defense in the penalty area. Dhaka's goal conversion rate of more than 53 per cent is impressive, in large part because most of his shots are almost always done in the box.
In the last chart, we're going to compare the number of passes and progressive runs per 90 minutes. Dhaka averaged 4.08 passes and 1.19 progressive runs per 90 minutes, both of which did not hit the statistical average. Dhaka is not the kind of striker who will actively seek a breakthrough with the ball. He prefers to go into more threatening areas by cooperating with his teammates.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > excellent explosiveness and no-ball running</h1>
Dhaka's biggest advantage is that he can take the best position between the opposing defenses by running without the ball, while also creating more offensive space for his teammates. Since Dhaka doesn't have a fixed route in the final third of the way, it makes it difficult for opponents to limit his movement with a fixed defensive mode. Dhaka is also very good at opening up the offensive passage in tight spaces with a quick one-touch touch. In the following set of match screens, we can see dhaka directly passing the ball back to his teammate by touching the ball with one foot at the moment of receiving a pass from his teammate, and at the same time making a turn forward action.
Dhaka is one of the very few strikers who can easily run deep from behind, making him almost the perfect partner for Vardy on the offensive end, while also being able to use his excellent momentary explosiveness to break through the opposing defences, making it almost impossible for them to catch up with Dhaka once the opposing defender is left behind. In the set of match footage below, we can see dhaka trailing the last defender before receiving the ball, but two seconds later he has left the opposing defender behind and completed the goal.
While we've already mentioned how terrifying Dhaka's instantaneous explosiveness is, the reason he runs so dangerously behind the opposing line isn't just his speed, the 22-year-old striker often creates an edge in time and space through changes in rhythm. In the set of matches below, we see Dhaka initially trying to interject between the opposing two defenders, but his teammate's pass was intercepted by the opponent. After his teammate regained possession, Dhaka created room for his teammates to push forward from the middle by moving to the right. In the end, Dhaka used the defensive blind spot behind the opposing defense on the right side to complete the forward insertion again, and the teammate's pass was also sent to his feet in time.
Dhaka often makes unconventional running positions in the final third of the way, and these running positions can tear apart the opposing defense in an instant. In the match footage below, we can see that Dhaka's forward insertion between the opposing two centre-backs along the direction of the yellow dotted arrow in the figure seems to be the most reasonable running position choice, but he chose to cut inward laterally to the left rib of the opponent.
This may seem to be contrary to the conventional running position but has achieved unexpected results. In the match footage above, we see that when Dhaka crosses the two defenders, the defenders behind have stopped, while Dhaka enters the "space" behind the front defenders. Since the defender in front focused all his attention on the ball carrier and therefore did not follow Dhaka, this allowed Dhaka to enter the most threatening area almost undefended.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > conclusion</h1>
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