Film Study Quickie: Christian Nørgaard

Here's what you need to know about Arsenal's (likely) new backup DM

Full disclosure here: I didn’t have a deep catalogue of film ready to go on Christian Nørgaard before Wednesday morning.

The Danish midfielder has been a fixture in the Premier League now for four seasons, starting an impressive 120 matches for Brentford in that time. For perspective, this injury-free campaign brought Thomas Partey to 109 starts in five league seasons. But he’s kept a relatively low profile despite all that, with a Transfermarkt value peaking at €20m, for illustration.

But that doesn’t mean we here at Cannon Stats can’t tell you everything you need to know about Arsenal’s presumptive new midfield depth! Make sure you check out Scott’s stat scouting piece below as a start:

Some basic background on Nørgaard before we get into the stats and film: He’s been at Brentford for six seasons now, first joining for about €3.5 million in June 2019. He was integral to back-to-back third-place finishes in the Championship after joining, but missed significant time (nearly 40 games) his second season in London with ankle injuries. Nørgaard has picked up knocks that have cost him three or four games here and there since the club’s promotion, but nothing of a similar significance.

Prior to joining Brentford, Nørgaard had a very short stint at Fiorentina, which he’d joined a year before Brentford also for about €3.5 million. The Dane never caught on in Florence, though, struggling to adapt to both the culture in Italy and the then-coaching staff’s playstyle. The move to Brentford gave him a chance to reunite with Thomas Frank, who’d previously coached him at Brøndby.

Speaking of, Nørgaard spent six seasons in all at the Danish Superliga club, the two where he was a main starter each resulting in second-place finishes. He started 98 league games there in all.

Brøndby gave Nørgaard the lion’s share of his on-the-job training as a young footballer, but he technically made his SuperLiga debut at Lyngby as a teenager in the 2011-2012 season. He also spent a season with the Hamburger SV reserves in Germany before returning to Denmark for the 2013 campaign.

Nørgaard today is the Bees’ captain, a title he’s held for the past two seasons, and he’s also got 35 caps with the Denmark men's national team.

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