Marin Petkov is a 20-year-old winger from Bulgaria. Petkov plays for Levski Sofia in the Efbet Liga and is a starter for the team from the Bulgarian capital. He mostly plays as a right winger, but often moves to the left wing. Petkov is left footed, and that’s the foot he almost uses the whole match. His right foot is not that good, but he can shoot or make a pass with it. The 10-time Bulgarian national team played is 179 centimeters long and has an ectomorphic body build. After 25 league games he scored 7 goals and 4 assists in 72 minutes per game on average.
Like I said earlier, Petkov has an ectomorph body build. But it doesn’t mean he hasn’t any muscles. Most of his power comes from the shoulder area, but he helps himself with his arms. Also, Petkov is quick. Both in acceleration and in pace, so that helps him in ground duels as well. Sometimes Petkov falls to easily during duels in my opinion, to win a foul in such way. He has decent balance, but it kinda works with some referees. He doesn’t often go into aerial duels, even though his jumping reach is not bad. He’s talkative when he hasn’t the ball, and mostly when in defense. He then shows to a teammate which opponent is open to help with covering him. Petkov has a good work rate, which also shows his good fitness as he can run throughout the whole game.
Offensively, Petkov could offer a lot. He is a really good dribbler. Petkov excels in tight spaces with a defender on him, he really likes to get the ball and start dribbling forward with it past defenders. His positioning is also good, he moves around so that he creates open space for himself but also an open gap for a teammate to make a run. Petkov asks occassionaly for a deep pass behind defending lines. He positions himself often wide on the wing and you can see it in his heat maps, but he’s often nearby the centrally laid positions as well. Petkov has a good powerful shot with decent accuracy. The shots that he misses don’t go far away from the goal but are rather nearby it. His short passes are good, he can give a tough pass that would create a good chance for his team. Petkov doesn’t give a lot of long passes; he often crosses but the crosses aren’t good. Like said earlier, he mostly depends on his left foot. He can take a shot or give a pass with his right foot, but he only does that when it’s really necessary. Overall, Petkov has some good abilities on the offensive side.
Petkov is also active on the defensive side. He often pressed the defenders or midfielders with the ball, and he often tracks them and keeps running behind them to force a mistake. He drops back often during attacks and actively helps in the defense. Most of his good work rate is also visible during the moments he helps defending. He cuts through the passing lanes to intercept the ball, but he also tries to directly tackle an opponent if he’s nearby. Petkov doesn’t go often into direct duels on the ground, but he can take up the fight against a stronger opponent. Like said earlier, he almost never goes into aerial duels.
The future is bright for Petkov. He is definitely ready for a better club and league, and as his contract ends the next season I wouldn’t be surprised if he would leave this summer. I think that another club from the Balkan area will pick him up, but I’d prefer to see him move to a league like the Swiss Super League, Austrian Bundesliga or even the Belgian Jupiler Pro League. Petkov still has time to improve, but he needs to do it at a better club in my opinion. But as I said, the future is bright for the Bulgarian.
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