MEET FINNBOGASON’S REPLACEMENT

As every transfer window passed, the assumption that Alfred Finnbogason would leave Heerenveen came along with every window and they finally lost him last month. The Icelander packed his bags off to Sociedad in La Liga and new Heerenveen coach Dwight Lodeweges was left to shop for his replacement. The search ended in Denmark and 30-year-old Thomas Dalgaard was brought in from Superligaen side Viborg FF and handed a three-year deal. Martin Krag tells Total Dutch Football what the 6ft 2inch forward is all about…

Dalgaard got his breakthrough at Randers FC in the Danish first division, where he helped the team win promotion to the Superligaen. After six months, he was sold onto the Turkey side Manisaspor, who were in the Süper Lig, but he never got going there, making just 2 appearances. Thus, he had to restart his career and moved back to Denmark and his first club, Skive IK, back in the First division. Here he stayed for three years before transferring to Viborg in the same league where his 27 goals in 31 matches secured the team promotion. In the following season (2013/14) he became Superligaen top scorer but Viborg were still going down. He expected to secure a move away pretty early on but the interest wasn’t really there (possibly because of his age and the Danish market).

During his spell in Randers he got a reputation of not working too hard and his coach called him ‘Lazy Boy’ – a name that has stuck since. It was probably a bit harsh even though he is not the type of striker to do a lot of work outside the box. He’s pretty clinical inside the area, so that should be how to utilize his strengths. His weakness is probably that he’s pretty limited in his game as he is a rather old school striker/box player.

In the 2013/14 season (again the Superligaen top scorer), Viborg played pretty simple and sought to utilize Dalgaard as much as possible by getting the ball in the box often. I don’t know if that’s how Heerenveen plays but that seems like the way to get the most out of him.