It is easier for the Adana coach to play without a center forward than to put Artyom in the base.
When Adana announced the transfer of Artyom Dziuba, this transfer seemed doubtful to many. It quickly became clear that the Russian striker decided to move to the Turkish middle peasants for reasons of comfort: both sports and financial.
Demirspor offered the player a contract that was consistent with his ideas about a decent pension, and guaranteed a decent amount of playing practice. The rookie did not have to go out of his way to win a place at the base – especially after the departure of Mario Balotelli.
Now, Dziuba’s football prospects abroad do not look so rosy. The striker’s form began to decline immediately after a bright debut, and after 3 rounds of the Superleague he was on the bench. It turned out to be easier for the Adana coach to defeat the Turkish champion playing without attackers than with the Russian at the start.
Artyom will not have a Turkish fairy tale?
Illusion of usefulness
Dzyuba’s Turkish voyage began promisingly. When Artyom first moved to Adana, the team’s coach Vincenzo Montella, apparently, was quite confident in the newcomer’s abilities and immediately entrusted him with a place in the starting lineup. For the Russian, the debut game for Demirspor became a holiday in the square: in the match against Fenerbahce (2:4), the striker scored the first goal for the new club, at the same time celebrating his birthday on the field.
Even then, the reaction of Turkish fans to Artyom’s game was ambiguous. The first hour of the Russian in the Adana T-shirt rather disappointed the locals: on social networks, the majority noted his slowness, sluggishness and disengagement from the team game. However, there was nothing surprising in the latter: the player had just arrived at the club and had not yet had time to get used to new colleagues, the tactics of the coach and the specifics of the league. When Dzyuba sent the ball from half a meter into an empty net, either after a strike or a pass, the fans stopped grumbling – but not for long.
Artyom Dziuba / Photo: ©
Adana DemirsporIn the next round, Artyom again appeared at the base, but this time he could not disguise his weak game. The act of Montella speaks most eloquently of this, who decided to replace Dziuba already at half-time: apparently, the striker categorically did not follow the coaching instructions. For 45 minutes on the field, the Russian did not make a single useful action: 0 hits, 0 sharp passes, 0 strokes, 0 tackles or interceptions … Even in the strongest aspect of his game – the fight for the ball – the forward failed. Several statistical portals at once recognized the Russian as the worst player in Adana following the results of the match.
Blown away in three weeks
Since then, everything has only gone downhill. Before Dzyuba’s third game, his Italian mentor tried to describe his situation as accurately as possible in a conversation with the press. Montella noted the impact that he has on the locker room, and then identified the problem – Artyom “lagged behind the rest of the team in terms of physical condition.” So the Russian started the match against Hatayspor (1:1) on the bench, although his main replacement Mario Balotelli had left the club before that with a scandal. The place of the center forward went to Britt Assombalonga, who by that time had not scored for Adana for 14 matches.
But if in the 5th round the coach allowed Artyom to enter the field for at least half an hour, as a result of which the player again merged with the lawn, then he did not release the attacker for the match with Trabzonspor (3:2). Montella felt that it would be better for his team to play without a pure center forward at all than to give Dziuba or Assombalonga a chance. And his bet played: “Adana” unexpectedly defeated the Turkish champions and entrenched in the top 5.
What’s next for Juba?
After only 3 weeks, the rhetoric of the Italian specialist has changed: now Vincenzo started talking about the fact that “Dziuba is looking forward to his chance” – which means that the coach no longer counts on Artyom by default. The Russian is so functionally unprepared to play for Adana that he loses the competition even to himself. In the current conditions, the striker cannot even count on the role of a joker – in order to get game practice, he definitely needs to add.
The problem is that it will be difficult for a striker with roots in Russian football to add at the age of 34. In itself, adaptation to the new league is already a serious challenge for Artyom, and the Turkish championship surpasses our Premier League in terms of the pace and intensity of the game. And it will not be easy for a football player to find the former motivation at the end of his career.
Adana, on the other hand, plays quite dynamic football, stylistically unusual for Dziuba. The tactics of the team in the attack is not limited to crosses into the penalty area and long passes, which the Russian “pillar” could respond to. Montella appreciates speed, technicality and passing skills in players: last season, his Demirspor ranked first in dribbles per match (11.2) and penultimate in passing (17.8).
The coach will definitely not radically rebuild the team for the sake of Dziuba – especially knowing that the newcomer’s condition leaves much to be desired. Apparently, Artyom will be able to benefit Adana only when Montella needs to introduce a tactical variety into the game, namely, to simplify it in order to go into a frontal attack in the last minutes, as it was in the game with Hatayspor. Of course, global conclusions cannot be drawn based on the results of just 3 weeks – however, the main trends are already visible now: just like that, Dziuba in Turkey will not get anything.
