Background

Dominic Iorfa has impressed from the moment he was thrown into first team action halfway through the 2014-15 season due to injuries and a run of four defeats on the trot. Naturally a centre-back he was asked to fill in at right-back and despite his debut ending in a 2-1 defeat at home to the eventual title winners Bournemouth, things from that point on got a lot better for both Iorfa and Wolves.

Following that defeat to Bournemouth Iorfa formed part of a solid defence that went eight matches unbeaten from mid-December to the end of January, a run that included 5 clean sheets. Such was the scale of his performances that by the close of January Iorfa had been named Football League Young player of the month. The quality of his performances was made all the more impressive by the fact that his only previous professional experience had come at the tail-end of the 2013-14 season, making 7 appearances for Shrewsbury Town on loan in League One.

The form continued as he solidified his place at starting right-back as Wolves’ displays increasingly improved seeing them rise from the bottom half of the table to narrowly missing out on a play-off place, Iorfa’s personal season ended with being awarded Wolves’ Young Player of The Season.

Strengths

One of Iorfa’s most obvious strengths is his natural athleticism which allowed him to easily make the change from centre-back to right-back, helping him cope with both defending against pacey wingers as well as enjoying new attacking responsibilities. This brings me onto his next strength.

Despite being new to the position he isn’t shy about getting forward and last season he was more than happy to provide support for James Henry on the wing. He was surprisingly calm and coordinated on the ball as well and I only use the word ‘surprisingly’ because other young, athletic, English defenders in particular have a history of being fairly clumsy on the ball (see Phil Jones, Micah Richards, Kyle Walker and further up the field Danny Welbeck e.t.c.).

His main strength though is by far his 1-on-1 defending. It was thoroughly enjoyable last season watching Iorfa continually faced with different wingers running toward him and seeing his composure in staying on his feet, calmly and cleanly prising the ball of his opponent before gracefully striding forward with it or giving it to a teammate.

Weaknesses

His main weaknesses all seem to stem from the tactical side of his game and that’s something that will hopefully improve with age and experience. With that considered let’s move onto the first thing this affects.

Defensive positioning and awareness of the opposition players near him are both lacking, this combined with his slow reactions to loose balls can cause a few problems in his own box. Most notably when defending from set-pieces and corners, there were a few occasions in which the keeper would save the first shot or the ball would deflect off someone and Iorfa was caught on his heels.

His most worrying weakness though is his apparent lack of desire to track back when he’s out of position. More often than not if Iorfa has ventured up the field to support an attack and it has broken down the opposing team has taken advantage and countered down his side. Rather than attempt to get back into an area where he could be of use he tends to wander back hoping his teammates will recover the situation. This is something that I think may have come from him enjoying his newly found attacking role a bit too much as the season progressed and I have no doubt that the longer he plays at right-back he will reign it in.

Final Thoughts

Despite the weaknesses I just spoke about that might seem worrying to some, I would attribute them to young age and would suspect that he will quickly improve on this side of his game. The natural ability he possesses in terms of defensive skill and athleticism can’t be ignored and he will be one to keep an eye on throughout this season. Particularly so now that Richard Stearman, arguably one of the best centre-backs in the Championship, has left for Fulham and will no longer be able to guide him. The return of captain Danny Batth will help somewhat but even still, Wolves will now compete this year with an incredibly young back-four, one which Iorfa is now a key component of.

So it will be interesting to see how both Wolves and Iorfa get on this year but should Wolves manage to win promotion, don’t be surprised if Iorfa seamlessly makes the step up to the Premiership.

*There aren’t any compilations yet showing his ability so to compensate, here’s a video which shows him outstripping Scott Sinclair in a pre-season friendly.