Following the example of Kane: how Abascal is trying to turn Sobolev into a universal striker

At the end of the match of the fourth round of the RPL between Spartak and Ural, fans and experts had enough topics for discussion.

Some spoke about the championship prospects of the red-whites, others about the possible resignation of the head coach of Yekaterinburg Igor Shalimov at that time, and others about the severity of the injury to Victor Moses and the impact that his loss could have on the Muscovites.

In this regard, a little less attention was paid to Alexander Sobolev.

In the last meeting, the striker, although he missed a few scoring chances, showed himself as a dispatcher and, in general, performed slightly different functions than usual.

Of course, Sobolev could never be called an exclusively penalty forward.

Even in the early stages of playing for Spartak, he often went deep and participated in the advancement of the ball.

But until this season, it was driven more by the style of the team than by his personal aspirations.

Both under Domenico Tedesco and under Rui Vitoria with Paolo Vanoli, the team relied on high-speed counterattacks and used Alexander as one of the main options when moving from one phase of the game to another.

As a result, he often received a pass in the middle of the field, after which he either dragged it forward or addressed it to his partners.

But before that, the efficiency left much to be desired.

In the previous two seasons, Sobolev chalked up four assists to his account, and in general he tried to hit on goal more often than to bring teammates to the shock position.

Therefore, his actions in the meeting with the Urals were so striking.

In the first half, Alexander scored an assistant double for the first time in his career and ended the 45-minute period as the leader in the number of key passes (provoking a dangerous moment).

Even the main red-and-white playmaker Quincy Promes created less.

In the second half, Sobolev clearly remembered that he had not yet delivered a single blow to the Ural goal and focused on this aspect, but this only slightly blurred the impression of his performance.

Surely this was facilitated by the appearance on the field of Mikhail Ignatov - an attacking midfielder who prefers to be located in the center, and not on the flank, like Moses.

Because of this, Alexander's functions also changed.

If before that he actually played the role of a center forward in the top three, then after that, together with Promes, he moved a little forward, giving his compatriot more space.

“We use a two-forward scheme, and Sobolev is great at managing the space that he has.

We play combination football.

It is important to maintain this dynamism, which we are showing now, in the next matches, so that our attackers are versatile - they can both shoot on goal, completing the episode, and give a scoring pass, ”said Abascal on Match TV.

After this meeting, some were quick to draw analogies between Sobolev and Artyom Dzyuba, who at one time also evolved from a purely finisher into a versatile forward, capable of both scoring and helping partners do it.

In particular, this was pointed out by the well-known commentator Gennady Orlov.

“Sobolev is good as a dispatcher.

True, it is necessary to get into an empty net.

Does he remind me of Dziuba when he also gave out assists?

There is a certain similarity.

Yes, it kind of reminds me.

But Dzyuba is still more technical.

He still went through the Spartak school.

It had an effect.

Sobolev - Barnaul.

But he is now very useful, he added.

Progress is obvious.

Moves, presses, passes.

It appears to be well prepared.

Abascal brought them great for the season.

One piece of advice to Alexander is not to spread your elbows wide, to keep yourself within the rules, ”Sport-Express quotes Orlov.

But not only two assists gave rise to talk about Sobolev's changed functions and Abascal's intention to make him a more versatile striker, able to benefit the team both in the final phase of the attack and in its development.

Rather, it is possible to talk about this how the movement of Alexander has changed.

Like Dziuba over the past seasons, he actively moved to the flank and to the center of the field, and he did this in a situation where Spartak had a colossal territorial advantage and besieged the Ural penalty area.

You should pay attention to two parameters.

Firstly, the number of touches of the ball by Sobolev - for a representative of his role, he was used very often (45 times).

If we take into account the second part of last season and the beginning of this one, then he was more involved in the game in matches with the same Ural (47) and Arsenal (55), held in the spring.

But this is easy to explain, because then he spent all 90 minutes on the field, and this time he limited himself to 67 minutes.

For comparison, among the center forwards who entered the field, only Fedor Smolov (46) and Maxim Glushenkov (57) surpassed him.

But the position of the ex-football player of the Russian national team under Slavish Jokanovic changed noticeably, as a result of which he began to increasingly play the role of a “false nine” and sink into the middle, while the second always gravitated to the flank and was not considered a free kick striker.

Secondly, it is also curious in which particular zone Sobolev met the ball more than usual.

Most often, he entered the game on the right flank - within a radius of 20 meters from the central circle.

And this testifies not only to his active participation in the development of fast counterattacks, but also to his deep involvement in the combination game and participation in counterpressing.

Approximately from this zone, he made a breakthrough and organized the first goal, and in the moment with the second one he was slightly higher, but approximately at the same distance from the sideline.

But in this regard, he rather resembles not Dziuba, who was already moving to the edge during the development of positional attacks, but Harry Kane during his performance at the European Football Championship.

By this time, the Englishman had already managed to try himself in a new role at Tottenham, and then demonstrated this in matches for the Three Lions.

At the Euro, he appeared as a universal football player, able to look harmoniously both in the underplay and in the end, loitering along the entire front of the attack.

Although Kane never assisted his partners at Euro, it was often his successful decisions that led to dangerous episodes at the opponent's goal.

He took 19th place among all participants in the tournament in terms of this indicator when converted to 90 minutes (0.7), and among his colleagues in the role he lost only to Roland Shallai, Memphis Depay, Alexander Isak, Andrei Kramaric and Haris Seferovic.

But given the performance of the England team in the championship, this is hardly surprising.

Gareth Southgate kept the wards to the maximum and focused on defense.

It is possible that, ideally, Abascal would like to see something similar performed by Sobolev.

At the very least, the performance in the meeting with Ural clearly indicates attempts to expand its functionality and make it a more versatile attacker than before.

It is still difficult to say how his role will change in the future and whether Moses' severe injury will have an impact on this.

The absence of the Nigerian may force the mentor to change the formation.

And in a formation with two forwards, such maneuvers by Alexander may not be so appropriate.