Ruslan Malinovsky, the gifted Talent from Ukraine

DBasia.news – Ukraine rarely produces quality football players every year. Since the era of Andriy Shevchenko, there hasn’t been a player who has become a threat in Europe’s league.

Aside from Shevchenko who has talent as a top bomber and AC Milan legend, other names such as Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ruslan Rotan, Andriy Pyatov, and Andriy Voronin are relatively not as good as Shevchenko.

However, the prospect of Ukraine has been shining under the direction of Shevchenko who became head coach. Talents such as Oleksandr Zinchenko, Andriy Lunin, combined with experienced senior players such as Andriy Yarmolenko, Yevhen Konoplyanka, and Ruslan Malinovskyi.

The last name mentioned is becoming a hot commodity among Europe’s top club talent scouts. Although no longer at a young age – 27 years old – but Malinovskyi is in his prime condition.

Malinovskyi is currently defending Atalanta and the way he rises to be known to European football lovers is quite unique. Malinovskyi previously defended Shakhtar Donetsk in mid 2011-207 and two years in Genk (2017-2019) before heading to Atalanta.

Atalanta’s rapid development under the direction of Gian Piero Gasperini also influenced Malinovskyi’s performance, which is currently being targeted by Chelsea. In Gasperini’s 3-4-2-1 tactic at Atalanta, Malinovskyi played an important role in midfield.

Together with Genk Malinovskyi they won the Belgian First Division title with a record he contributed in 16 goals and assists. With Atalanta, Malinovskyi’s playing area is wider as he is free to help attack from the second line.

Malinovskyi is usually paired with Mario Pasalic or Marten de Roon in midfield to sustain the movements of Duvan Zapata, Josip Ilicic, and Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gomez.

So far Malinovskyi has scored eight goals and provided seven assists from 38 matches in all competitions. For the player who is brought in from Atalanta for 13.6 million euros, his contribution to the club has exceeded expectations.

“Ruslan is great, but so are other players. I have also seen other players and in this match it could be a trap,” Gasperini said after Atalanta’s 6-2 victory over Brescia in Serie A.

Playing Style

Quoted from Whoscored, Malinovskyi’s game is a typical box-to-box midfielder who can help the team in the defending or rising phase to help attack. His strength is in his ability to dribble the ball, release long-range kicks, and take free kicks.

His play and operand vision is also good. The good performance can be seen when Atalanta drew 2-2 against Juventus. Malinovskyi, who entered in the second half, fired a hard shot that was unable to be contained by Wojciech Szczesny.

Judging from his current performance and value, it is understandable that Chelsea and other European clubs are after Malinovskyi. Likewise for Malinovskyi, he also did not contain his desire to play in England.

“I have played a number of times in England with Atalanta. From that experience, I was impressed with the atmosphere of the game there,” said Malinovskyi

“I really like the atmosphere of the Premier League. But now is not the right moment to talk about it, there are still important things that are more worth talking about.”