Where did Artem Dzyuba go? – Soviet sport

On August 18, the Turkish “Adana Demirspor” announced the signing of the signing of Artyom Dziuba, who had high hopes. And indeed, the result was not long in coming – Artem scored in the first match against Fenerbahce. However, after that, Dzyuba’s surname almost completely disappeared in the media space. Why?

Results of “Adana”

The Turkish club has played eight matches in the domestic championship, the results are as follows: 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. There was only one loss, and it just fell on the match in which Dzyuba was noted. But even with him, the club comfortably settled in second place, second only to Basaksehir, which has a better goal difference and one match in hand. If the leader loses the next match, then a rare situation for football will turn out – four clubs at once will have the same number of points at the top of the table.

Even if Adana Demirspor falls apart and fails to hold on to an intermediate second place, this result can be called outstanding, because two seasons ago the team played in the local division.

So where is Dzyuba?

Moving to a new team, Mario Balotelli seemed to be Artyom Dzyuba’s main competitor in the fight for a place at the base, but the Italian quickly self-destructed by moving to Sion. Despite the comfortable position and complete carte blanche in the hands of Dzyuba, the forward was in a dead reserve. In just one match, he played more than 60 minutes, and in the last three Artyom sat on the bench until the very end.

Most often, in such situations, one can single out attacking colleagues who more clearly manifest themselves in the time allotted on the field, but here is a completely different case. Former promising Salzburg striker Fredrik Gulbrandsen and Britt Assombalonga, estimated in 2017 at 17 million euros, share the fate of the Russian scorer and are also sitting in the reserves.

It may seem strange, but Adana really does not have a single striker who gets playing time. All of them fell victim to the new tactics of the eccentric Vincenzo Montella, who threw away all the pre-season developments and switched to a completely new scheme in the course of the season, in which there is simply no place for attackers. The top scorer is Younes Belhanda, who is considered a midfielder.

On the one hand, Dziuba became a hostage to a situation in which the club and the head coach personally took a different path, which was not thought out in advance, but after all, no one is obliged to give Artyom a place at the start just like that. If Montella had seen the ex-forward of the Russian national team as a real threat to the defense of rivals, then he would probably have preferred him, and would not have perverted and invented complex and infrequently used tactics without an attacker.