Introduction:
Shatov shouldn’t really be a professional footballer, and indeed very nearly wasn’t. Standing at 1.73 metres and weighing just 64kg, his physique is more suited to futsal, which he played up until five years ago for one-time UEFA Futsal Cup winners MFK Viz-Sinatra Ekaterinburg. Despite spanning over 400 squared kilometres and boasting a population greater than Leicester’s, his home town of Nizhny Tagil is more famous for spawning the reprobate character in Russia’s answer to Little Britain than world-class stars. His skin is not plastered with tattoos, he’s rarely pictured falling out of limousines next to scantily-clad supermodels and his looks don’t lend themselves to billboards – all in contrast to a number of his international teammates.
In fact he has only had three full seasons as a genuinely first-choice player, but his status in the glamorous Zenit side and the Russian national team is now undisputed. After emerging from the spectacular Suleyman Kerimov experiment at Anzhi Makhachkala relatively unscathed he has established himself as an invaluable attacking threat, and has earned his place in André Villas-Boas’ side on merit, not because of the tightened foreigners restrictions.
Strengths and weaknesses:
His low centre of gravity and quick feet are his biggest advantages over more physically developed players, all honed to perfection during his days as player of the shorter and faster version of the game. His favoured position is cutting in from the left flank onto his stronger right foot where his speed of thought and movement are hard to pick up for defenders. His genuine dribbling pace can be a nightmare for backpedalling opponents, and to get the most out of this ability he is best picked in his customary role at club level.
He has built up his muscular strength over the last season or two, but is still a slight frame and can get brushed of the ball more easily than he would like to. While the nature of his position doesn’t require any particular aerial ability, he is unsurprisingly not the strongest challenging for the ball.
The 2015-16 season:
A strike rate of less than one goal and one assist every 7 appearances before this season is not particularly impressive, but this season he has exploded statistically; 10 goals and 14 assists in 35 total appearances points to a remarkably central role to Zenit’s season. Missing out on Champions League football is an obvious low point for Shatov, but individually he has produced the finest and most confident football of his career. It doesn’t hurt to have the Brazilian behemoth that is Hulk as an attacking partner, but at 25 he is beginning to come out of the shadows of his illustrious teammate.
