Alexander Golovin played the first official match in five and a half months. Let’s analyze how, after a long pause, one of the leaders of Monaco and the club itself looked in the first round of the French Ligue 1.
Lack of practice and staff turnover
The 2019/20 French Championship – the only one of the five major European championships – ended ahead of schedule in April. According to the results of 28 rounds out of 38 planned “Monaco”Finished ninth and was left without European cups. Like the Champions League semi-finalist Lyon, he is just one point behind the Europa League zone. However, in 2020, the Monegasques were unstable and it is not a fact that they could have succeeded in a dense group of applicants if the pandemic had not intervened.
Despite the absence of official matches after March 7, many events took place at AS Monaco in almost six months. The head coach has changed again: the team is headed by the former coach of Bayern Niko Kovač… A whole group of important players left the club: lease agreements for Islam Slimani (second scorer – 9 goals), important players in the middle line Adrienne Silva and Timue Bakayoko, the main central defender transferred to Benevent Kamil Glick… Those recovering from injuries were not ready for the start of the season Cesc Fabregas and Stevan Jovetic… And this, if you do not dig deeper. Positive – half-year suspension has expired Zelson Martins and a talented center-back was acquired Axel Disasi (13 million euros).
In preparation for the new season, AS Monaco have played four sparring matches since mid-July, in which they have won two wins and one defeat. Golovin scored on a goal in victorious meetings with Cercle Brugge and AZ, and became the first Russian player to wear a captain’s armband at a Ligue 1 club.
Monaco – Reims – 2: 2. Goals and Highlights
Kovacs debut in the French championship was very difficult. Already by the middle of the first half of the home match, Monaco “burned” 0: 2. “Reims”, In the last season he was one point ahead of the Monegasques and won the right to play in the Europa League, and, in addition, conceded the least in Ligue 1 (21 goals). The hosts had much more possession of the ball (76.1 by 23.9 percent at the end of the meeting), but the guests used counterattacks extremely effectively, realizing two chances out of two, and also defended competently.
Standard provisions came to the rescue of Monaco. The first return goal was scored by Kovacs wards “into the locker room”, the second – soon after the break. It is significant that the authors of both goals were the central defenders of the owners, Disasi and Benoit Badyashil… In stoppage time in the second half, Disasi, who moved to Monaco from Reims, could have scored a double, bringing his new club a strong-willed victory, but after a corner kick he shot a little off target.
However, such an outcome would hardly be natural, despite the superiority of the owners in almost all statistical components. The fact is that the rare counterattacks of Reims turned out to be very dangerous. The attacking players of the guests did not have enough luck, and somewhere the performance skills let down. Here is how our permanent expert Alexander Bubnov described what he saw:
– AS Monaco had a lot of control over the ball, but mostly did not know how to manage it while moving forward. There was clearly not enough dispatcher in the center of the field, the game was falling on the flanks. On the positive side, I would note the implementation of the “standards”. The most negative is the very unreliable defense. The defenders were positionally wrong, they were beaten one on one, Reims could score many times in the second half.
Bubnov also noted the problems with refereeing.
– I would like to draw your attention to the point related to refereeing. In the first half, the Reims defender played with his hand in his own penalty area, and in the return attack the guests scored the second goal. The referee made a mistake by not assigning a penalty. Why the video assistant didn’t tell him is a big question. In my opinion, this is a productive mistake. As you can see, such questions arise not only in Russia.
How Golovin played
Monaco – Reims. Golovin shot just above the gate
The Russian midfielder created the first dangerous moment of the match, breaking powerfully from a distance directly over the crossbar. He struck four shots on goal, three times made key passes under attack to partners, became the author of an effective cross from a corner in the first half (pre-goal pass) and a direct free-kick assistant in the second. Golovin played almost all the serve from the set before he was substituted in the 87th minute. The Russian has 3 selections, 2 won riding single combats, interception. The low accuracy of passes (71.4%) is explained both by a large number of risky sharpening passes and by a marriage, especially in the end, when forces began to run out.
A word to Bubnov:
– Golovin was active as usual, spent a lot of energy. I think that’s why he was replaced in the end. On the whole, the Russian’s play left an ambivalent impression. On the one hand, he organized both goals against Reims, was not afraid to take over the game, he was assigned the responsible role of the performer of “standards”, which speaks of trust. On the other hand, for most of the match, Golovin was in the shadows, partners often preferred to develop attacks with the right flank (and not with the left, closer to which the Russian acted), they did not always play through it when it was open. At the same time, Monaco just lacked the player-organizer, connecting the middle and front lines. In this game, Golovin cannot be called the leader of the team, although it was thanks to his passes that Monaco managed to recoup.
Monaco – Reims. 2: 2. Benoit Badyashil (scoring Golovina)
The statistician confirms the words of the expert. Of the players who started at the start, less often Golovin (60 touches), only the goalkeeper met with the ball Lekomt (37) and forward Ben-Yedder (41). Nevertheless, the contribution of the Russian midfielder to the draw with Reims is at least one of the decisive ones. Let’s see what conclusions Kovacs will draw from this meeting in terms of organizing attacks.
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