Shakhtar Donetsk faced the unenviable task of facing Los Blancos at their famous home; Santiago Bernabeu. Yet, their performance certainly made the 4,200 mile round-trip worthwhile in spite of their hosts being ultimate victors. They executed a clear gameplan to invite Real on to them and constrict space deep but the reigning champions’ quality prevailed. A just result considering the stark dichotomy in xG amassed- 3.50-0.78.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Anatoliy Trubin
- Nationality: Ukrainian
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 01/08/2001
- Current club: Shakhtar Donetsk
- Career: Shakhtar Donetsk
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Preferred foot: Right
It goes without saying that the Santiago Bernabeu is by no means an easy place to play. Yet, unfortunately Trubin had extreme difficulty in his ball-at-feet endeavours. Contrary to the previous notion, he remained keen throughout to offer himself as a viable option for ‘recycling’ whilst in possession and often occupied a position (during Shakhtar’s build up phase) which would hypothetically have a feasible passing lane. Unfortunately, as aforementioned, such eagerness was not at all reciprocated in the distribution itself. One would suspect that goalkeepers in the modern day would be almost autonomous with distribution under minimal to no pressure yet Trubin (an international goalkeeper; capped 3 times by home country, Ukraine) was absolutely antipodal in such a facet of the game. There was a plethora of occurrences when Trubin aimlessly ‘hoofed’ (for lack of a better phrase) upwards; some of which caused direct dispossession adding to the Los Blancos attacking bombardment, others went out of play within Shakhtar’s own half. Furthermore, this element of his game (amidst being superficially underdeveloped) is one-dimensional. There is a noticeable bias in Trubin’s distribution options; passing all but exclusively off his dominant right foot. Therefore, when high pressure is applied to Trubin (which rarely happened in this game) and an exit required, I can envision Trubin coming unstuck in the translation across the body.
Moreover, Trubin’s inefficiency and sub-requisite performance levels were expedited by his initial deficiencies in shot-stopping which fluctuated hugely throughout the game. I will look at these smaller fluctuations shortly yet it is worth pointing out one omnipresent feature of Trubin’s poor performance was his constant use of parrying. There is only a handful of examples in this game in which Trubin held on to/ caught the ball. Thus alternatively, he was extremely prone to a parry/punch away which often continued the onslaught from Real Madrid and failed to relieve any pressure and perhaps even exacerbated the pressure or unnecessarily gave away set pieces- as far as I am concerned there was a myriad of attempts where Trubin had ought to have caught the ball. On a positive note, (unfortunately, these are rare) as the game went on Trubin grew into the game and was able to use ‘hard hands’ to prevent conceding- a problem I will come on to and made a few very strong, instinctual, reflex saves using outstretched limbs. Pertinently, an outstretched leg at the near post. Furthermore, (albeit prerequisite) on the majority of occurrences Anatoliy angles himself well. Yet, the ‘hard hands’ aforementioned should have been used much earlier on in proceedings as unfortunately it is almost impossible to not burden Trubin with a majority stake of the blame for Rodrygo’s opener as a poor reach ( or rather lack thereof) and a lack of conviction (soft hands) in the save allowed a relatively timid effort to trickle in to the net and put the Spanish outfit ahead.
Positioning of a goalkeeper is somewhat hard to quantify as it is often dictated by tactics i.e. the intensity of the press and the coinciding height of the defensive line. For this reason, I cannot comment on Trubin’s ‘sweeping’ abilities as Shakhtar sat exclusively in a 4-5-1/4-4-2 mid-low block aimed to constrict space and prevent simple penetration thus leaving minimal space between the lowest ‘bank’ and the goalkeeper himself. Yet, Trubin’s positioning can still be examined. Whilst many of his high claims were all but routine and thus are inaccessible for analysis but shows his low-level proficiencies. There was a pertinent moment which shows to me that Trubin must improve his critical decision making and had ought to be proactive; a cross was floated in from the right half space, which intersected the ‘corridor of uncertainty’ yet Trubin remained glued to his line which allowed an opposition attacker to hook on to the ball at the back-post. Fortunately, for the 21-year-old this did not lead to a goal yet easily could have and such a situation must be approached more confidently in the future. Somewhat contradictory to my previous appraisal of his ‘angling’, I believe that for Vinicius Jr’s winer that Trubin could have perhaps positioned himself better. He is by no means at fault for the origin of the goal- a sloppy dispossession the causation. Yet, my opinion is that Trubin dorsiflexes far too early and thus roots himself too early which gives ‘Vini’ a more optimal angle to shoot from which he routinely converts from.
Rating: D
This is my first deep look into Anatoliy Trubin and therefore I am by no means writing him off as a prospect yet off this performance alone, he looks underdeveloped in a number of vital skillsets. Yet glimpses of talent were certainly present which are indicative of a degree of potential.