Players for Top leagues #7 — Patric Pfeiffer

The seventh player on the list of interesting options for strengthening in the top European championships is Patric Pfeiffer.
Player Profile:
Age: 22
Height: 196 cm
Role: Central defender
Club: Darmstadt
Nationality: German/Ghanaian

By the age of 18, he was considered a great talent, in the youth team they praised him, compared him with Antonio Rudiger and Jonathan Tah.

A huge central defender, a graduate of “Hamburg”. Played two matches for the German youth team. The club decided not to rely on the young defender and sold him for 250 thousand euros to “Darmstadt”. In the first season, he played only 7 matches in the entire championship, came out in the last minutes in the attack, looked with optimism at his development. The next year he got stronger, by December he became the key defender. In the 20/21 season he played in 18 Bundesliga 2 matches and two National Cup games. It would have been more, but in the April match against “Hamburg” — the first in his own stadium, he got injured for 2 months.
This season has started horribly for “Darmstadt” and Pfeiffer in particular. They lost the first two matches in the championship (Pfeiffer it missed due to coronavirus), flew out of the cup on penalties (He did not scored the decisive penalty). In the third round was the defeat of “Ingolstadt” with a score of 6: 1 and then everything went amazingly: the team issued an excellent streak of games and is in second place in the championship, and Patrick played all these matches without substitutions, became the leader of the defense. “Darmstadt” play 4–4–2 with a high defensive line, have little possession and try to play vertical football with a lot of tactical fouls. The good form of the attackers and reliability in defense helped to climb to the top, and from the third place the gap was already 5 points.

Strong features:
1. Strong in challenges and tackles. When the defender is 196 cm in height and 91 kg in weight, then he has some advantages over the attackers of his rivals. Patric wins 67% of challenges in defense, 64% of air challenges. According to both indicators, he is in the top 10 players in the league.
2. Positioning. He reads the game well, makes an average of 8 interceptions in 90 minutes. He plays tough when opponent is receiving the ball, does not allow him to turn around. Thanks to long legs, he runs out from behind the attacker’s back just before the ball is received, usually goes in pressure very high on the field.
3. Passing. Overall pass accuracy is 84%, while he uses long passes 8 times per game with 60% accuracy. Perfectly performs long-distance diagonals, even under pressure.
4. Weak foot. Mainly plays with the right foot, uses the left less often, but in quality it is not inferior. Equally effective as a right and left center-back.
5. Hard working. All the coaches, starting with the academy, praised Pfeiffer for his excellent work in training.

Weak features:
1. Clumsiness. May inexplicably miss the ball or fall out of the blue. This does not happen regularly, but it is alarming.
2. Starting speed. When Patric is gaining speed, she runs very fast. This is a common problem for big players. He is very weak at sprints, which gives the attackers a chance to break away from the defender. If Pfeiffer does not immediately reach the ball, then it is problematic to defend further.
3. Leadership skills. From childhood, Pfeiffer was humble. It’s hard for Patric to manage the defense and give prompts to his partners.

Statistics:

Successful actions, % — 84%
Accurate passes, % — 84%
Defensive challenges, per 90min —10
Defensive challenges won, % — 67%
Air challenges, per 90min — 6
Air challenges won, % — 64%

Ball recoveries, per 90min —9
Ball recoveries in opponent’s half, per 90min — 0,88
Tackles, per 90min — 1,9
Tackles won, % — 73%
Interceptions, per 90min — 8
Fouls , per 90min— 0,69

“Darmstadt” press high, Pfeiffer runs well from behind and starts a new dangerous attack.

Perfectly performs long passes exactly to the partner.

What is the next step ?
Is he ready to move to another club? Definitely not now. “Darmstadt” is going high this season and have a chance to promote to the Bundesliga, so leaving it in winter when you are the key player is simply unwise. We have to wait until the summer and see how everything goes. Patric will have only a year of the contract and could be bought for a reasonable amount. Of course, we would like to see a young defender in the clubs of the first Bundesliga. It seems to me that in the summer there will be several clubs that will be ready to offer suitable conditions in order to pick up a talented defender for themselves.

What’s the result?
A tall and athletic center-back, the staple of his club. Slowly, but gradually progressing. He plays well in the air, strong weak foot, great long pass. Contract with “Darmstadt” until 2023. The cost on Transfermarkt is 1.5 million euros.