Introduction:
Zenit striker Artem Dzyuba was in danger of getting lost in the wilderness of Russian football after falling out with former club Spartak Moscow. However, a couple of loan spells at Rostov revitalised him before he signed for Zenit St. Petersburg in the summer of 2015 upon the expiration of his contract with the Red-Whites.
Although he made his debut for Sbornaya back in 2011, he has not been a regular for the national team until this season and now he has a record of a goal every other game for Leonid Slutsky’s Russia team. Perhaps the biggest debate surrounding the national team at the moment is whether he or Fedor Smolov will start at the Euros with the Krasnodar man having had an excellent finish to the Russian Premier League season.
27-year-old Dzyuba is known to be a jovial character who, alongside Yuri Lodygin, is always at the forefront of Zenit’s media output – causing mischief in the club camp. In addition to his club based media, he has an excellent rapport with journalists from outside the club.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Dzyuba is a classic number 9. He is big and strong which he uses to great effect in his excellent hold up play. At Zenit he has acted as the pivot up top, which allows the likes of Oleg Shatov, Hulk and Danny to play in and around him with great fluidity.
The former Rostov striker is very much a penalty box striker who sniffs out chances which is shown by his excellent goalscoring record in recent months in domestic, European and international football.
Perhaps Dzyuba’s main weakness is his lack of pace. Defenders know that he is not going to run in behind their backline or pressurise them when they have the ball at their feet. Pretty much all of the Zenit man’s goals are poacher’s efforts which he creates through good movement rather than using any sort of pace.
The 2015/2016 season:
Andre Villas Boas signed Artem Dzyuba in order to replace the outgoing Salomon Rondon and help his Russian player quota. Dzyuba clearly had a point to prove after his controversial time at Spartak and probably saw this season as an opportunity to finally force himself into being a mainstay in the Russian national team. Although he took a while to get going (scoring only once in his first eight games) he hit a purple patch of form in late September which saw him score in five consecutive Russian Premier League games. From this point on, he never looked back and finished the season with 15 RPL goals.
Alongside his great domestic form, he excelled in the Champions League, scoring six goals in the group stages before Zenit crashed out in the last 16.
He has scored eight goals for Russia so far but they have generally been against the smaller teams (including a four goal haul against Lichtenstein). The Euros is a good opportunity to show that Dzyuba can make a real impact in international football.
