Former Italian Roma striker Francesco Graziani shared his thoughts on the potential of Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbik, from his former team.
Francesco Graziani“Dovbik is certainly not the kind of striker that excites me. But you must understand that this type of forward needs team support, and Dovbik receives the ball once every 15 minutes. This will psychologically exhaust any striker, and eventually, he risks falling into depression.
The fact that Dovbik scored all these goals in Spain (the Ukrainian became the top scorer of the last season in Spain, — editor's note) means that he knows how to do his job and does it well. He is not an idiot. And he has several justifications, including the numerous coaching changes at Roma. But in any case, he must do his part of the work.
What can improve Dovbik? He needs to be less predictable in the penalty area: he always shoots with his left foot, and defenders already know this. Additionally, Dovbik should become more mobile and active, like Lukaku was at Roma when he was making passes to everyone. But, I repeat, this is also a problem. From the perspective of team dynamics, Roma must create more opportunities for Dovbik so that he can be the main actor in the penalty area: he has shown that he can score goals from there in Italy.
Or put Dovbik in partnership with another quality striker, with whom he can share the attack phase. The Ukrainian often finds himself alone against 2-3 central defenders, as happened in the match against AZ. He feels cramped in such conditions and has no one to pass the ball to. With a second striker, I am sure Dovbik would find more space to shoot at the goal,” said Graziani in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.
