在
Chelsea
In over a century of team history, the Ukrainians haven't made many ripples. If anything, it would be mostly negative. The only Ukrainian player before Mykhailo Mudryk, who carried the Ballon d'Or title with a then-breaking
England Premier Soccer League
transfer to another club (professional sports)
Andriy Shevchenko, who came to pitch for the Fee record, ended up being nothing but a laughing stock on the Stanford Bridge pillar of shame. And this time Mudryk with 100M
transfer to another club (professional sports)
fee, counting inflation, is also the second highest of all Ukrainian players in history
transfer to another club (professional sports)
Fees (the first is Shevchenko joining the
Chelsea
current
transfer to another club (professional sports)
Faye) to join the club, will the 22-year-old be able to reverse the watered-down image of Ukrainian players held by the sons of Bluebridge?
Mudryk's most coveted, and irreplaceable, talent is his amazing dynamics. In
European crown
On the field, he ran the fastest sprint of any player this season at 36.6km/h, a figure that was even close to a kilometer faster than the world's fastest man recorded at this year's World Cup, Kamaldeen Sulemana (35.69km/h).
Much of Mudryk's speed must be attributed to his positional awareness. As you can see from the following few heatmaps provided by WhoScored.com, he stands further back than most inside wingers, while also covering a larger, wider area:
His backward position gives him more vertical space to accelerate on counter-attacks, and his position on the outside of the midfield gives him more horizontal space to create angles for his teammates to play direct balls to the back of the opponent's defense. What's even more remarkable is that Mudryk is not just a lone player who only thinks about receiving the ball behind him, and in many moments, we can even see him appearing in the middle of the field when the opponents try to counterattack after the team has just regained the ball, taking the place of the central midfielder who is supporting the defense, and playing the role of a support for the third line.
在
European crown
In the six matches, Mudryk had 69.6% of his touches in the center of the field (own box, defensive third, middle third). Although his average of 38.8 touches per game is almost the lowest among midfielders (only beating 5% of players in the same position), his awareness and work rate as a flanker to support the midfielders is also quite good. His role is similar to that of Fede Valverde, who is placed on the flanks: he can play as a wingback to assist the left side of the defense, return to the backfield to get the ball in the face of looting, and have a great range of movement and positional flexibility in the attacking end.
But just because Mudryk is back in support doesn't mean the opposition can take him lightly, especially with his world-class speed. In the same possession, Mudryk used a simple wall play to get a one-touch chance in front of the net, but unfortunately, he didn't get greedy and crossed the ball to teammate Danylo Sikan, who pushed the ball wide of the target. In fact, Mudryk is averaging 3.84 progressive passes and 2.79 touches in the opposition box, both of which are in the top 10% of players in his position. His dynamic talent, which encompasses
European crown
The fastest sprinting of any player and the stamina to play 90 minutes in nine games this season without tiring by the end of the game are the biggest assets of his vast range of motion.
From the heatmap above, we can also notice that Mudryk's position narrows as he moves deeper into the final third, which is partly a sign of his teamwork: Mudryk's cuts give the wingbacks Bogdan Mykhaylichenko or Mykola Matviyenko space to overlap and form an attacking triangle with Herohii Sudakov or Lassina Traoré in front of them. Mudryk cuts inside, giving wingbacks Bogdan Mykhaylichenko or Mykola Matviyenko space to overlap, forming an attacking triangle with Herohii Sudakov behind him or Lassina Traoré in front of him to push forward the line.
Mudryk switches with Sudkov to form a false ten, overlapping up Mykhaylichenko to pull out the width of the formation with weak-side wing Oleksandr Zubkov; the dotted line shows the direction of player movement
When Mudryk stays on the outside, the wingbacks are able to underlap into the half space to participate in the offense. Especially Matviyenko, who is 182 cm tall, can also add to the height of the team in the attacking end. Mudryk's above-average non-dominant foot allows him to be more elusive when advancing quickly and going one-on-one with the defenders: when he cuts inwards, Mudryk has already practiced a powerful shot, and even when moving towards the sideline, his left-footed passes are above par. He's above par when he moves to the sideline, and his left-footed crosses are above par. He doesn't even need to slow down when he's playing a drop pass, but is able to get the ball into the box with his non-dominant left foot first time after catching up with a ball that has been knocked hard past a defender.
