Girona striker Artem Dovbyk has not featured in the Primera Division for 8 matches in a row. The Catalan publication Diario Sport assessed the impact of the Ukrainian's form on the team's results.
Artem Dovbyk"When a team's performance declines and they look unconvincing, they quickly look for the guilty. And regardless of whether there are culprits or not, Girona has suffered from Artem Dovbyk's terrible decline in terms of his scoring role.
The fact that the forward hasn't scored in almost two months is quite worrying. And even more so when the team is going through its worst moment of the season. During the opening 21 rounds, Michel's men scored 51 goals. Luxurious figures that allowed them to compete with Barca and Real Madrid for the La Liga title. And the main "culprit" of the goal festival was Dovbyk, who scored 14 goals. He scored almost a third of Girona's goals in the first four months of the La Liga competition (27%).
Girona's winless streak outside Montilla, which has 4 matches, is not the fault of the Ukrainian. But the lack of goals binds the team, which, having conceded first, cannot change the score (...)
Girona barely scored 8 goals in eight games. These are somewhat worrying figures for the second highest scoring team in the league (59), which is five goals behind Real Madrid (64).
In the preview of the match between Getafe and Girona, Michel said that he was not worried about the Ukrainian's goal drought. "I would be worried if the team had no chances, but that's not the case." He praised his tireless work with and without the ball to get out of pressure and his role in the press.
Of course, it's great to have chances, but you still need to score. That's what this sport is all about. And Dovbyk needs to get a taste of goals again as soon as possible, to regain the confidence he seems to have lost over the past two months.
He finished the match against Getafe in despair. He was controlled very well by the centre-backs. He also missed a great chance to equalise in the first half. 2-3 months ago, that shot would have resulted in an exquisite goal celebration.
Ultimately, it's all about trust, and Artem Dovbyk still has some room for manoeuvre (nine games) to become a key player in a team that needs him to achieve its goal of playing in the Champions League next season," Diario Sport wrote.
