Mathias Delorge

Mathias Delorge Knieper was born in Sint-Truiden, and it was at the city’s club, Sint-Truidense VV, that he grew as a player until he joined KAA Gent – he also had a six-month loan spell at KSK Lierse. Born in July 2004, he is a Belgium Under-21 international and can play either defensive or centre midfielder. He is contractually tied to his current club until June 2028.

Mathias Delorge’s physical profile brings him immense benefits in terms of what KAA Gent’s playing model is and what his game is. In other words, the quality he displays on the pitch is related to the Belgian midfielder’s physical design. With a mesomorphic build, Delorge is a slender, agile midfielder with long legs (he measures 1.89 metres) and tremendous cardiovascular capacity, which allows him to be in different areas of the pitch at all times. He can either support the ball out wide or appear on the edge of the opposing penalty area to finish. He’s a player made to have the game working around him – in fact, he improves the quality of the game every time he plays – and his willingness to play ends up creating a very interesting symbiosis.

From a technical point of view, Delorge is a player capable of creating anything individually. He can either make short passes with just one touch to eliminate the opponent’s pressure triggers – he usually plays out from the back in the first phase of the build-up to act as a second man when applying the third man principle – or he can shift the centre of play from one lateral corridor to another. What’s more, when he has space, he doesn’t hesitate to make driving runs. It’s usually from these progressions that he arrives in the opponent’s area: he drives, looks for the combination to play to the side and attack the space in front, and then finishes. Or, as his team’s offence grows, and as a way of preparing for the defensive transition, he positions himself at the edge of the area to win a second ball or receive a late cross. He’s also a player with a good ability to evade pressure in one-on-one duels: as he’s agile, he uses body feints and ball feints to eliminate his opponent – in essence, he’s a master of deception.

Defensively, the Belgian midfielder is a very disciplined player when it comes to applying collective and individual concepts. When organising defensively, Delorge is concerned with keeping his space well-defended through correct positioning, something that allows him to close his back and at the same time provide cover for his midfield colleague. In this way, it’s difficult for the opposition to advance through the centre. Individually, it’s clear that the KAA Gent player knows how to contain well: he doesn’t try to tackle an opponent’s individual ball possession without first applying this defensive principle – he executes it, closing off the opposition and adjusting his body position depending on the direction of the ball. In terms of duelling, he still has some growing to do. His percentage of duels won this season is low and that’s because he’s still a bit soft when he has to be aggressive.

Delorge is a player on the rise at the start of the season, which means that his decision-making is getting better and better in every action he takes over the course of the ninety minutes. Even so, to reach the heights where his potential lies, he needs to stop misplacing certain passes, and this is often due to what is asked of him from a collective point of view. In other words, longer, more direct passes or quicker possession of the ball. While this doesn’t take Delorge out of a good context, it doesn’t put him in the ideal context for him to calmly organise his game from back to front.

At this competitive level, the climb up the mountain depends mostly on the performance of the players. However, it’s undeniable that Mathias Delorge is a player to be in the top European leagues if we look at his potential. Ideally, after his time at KAA Gent, he would like to join a team that is fighting for a place in European competition, such as Brighton & Hove Albion FC, Olympique de Marseille, or VfB Stuttgart. Depending on his performance at that stage, I believe it’s possible to see Delorge in the top European teams.