Sturm Graz had until to this point an average season as they sit in the fifth position with 32 points out of the opening 22 games. However, one player clearly stood out in this squad: Kiril Despodov. The 23-year-old Bulgarian who is on loan from Cagliari at Sturm Graz scored in this season six goals and provided six assists in 11 games for the Grazer.
Despodov played in the season 2018/19 in just four out of 17 possible games for Cagliari in the Serie A and due to that, the loan was a logical consequence. At Sturm Graz, he performed in this season really well as well see in this tactical analysis in the form of a scout report in which well look at his style of play and tactics.
Positioning and movement
First of all, before we look in this tactical analysis at the qualities and weaknesses of Despodov to examine his style of play and how he can help his team, we need to talk about his positioning and his movements during a game to understand in which areas of the pitch he has the real impact. In general, you need to consider that the head coach of Sturm Graz, Nestor El Maestro used several formations in this season and while Despodov also played in different positions.
Usually, the Bulgarian is a right-winger who can play also on the left side and additionally he made some appearances in a more central role too. Considering all these aspects, it’s no surprise that his heatmap doesn’t tell us much about his activities on the field except the aspect that he played in this campaign in different positions. Besides, even when he plays as a left-winger, we can often see how he goes into the centre as he is a player who rarely stays in one certain area of the pitch. All these factors are visualised in the shot below.
However, one thing that definitely can be seen in the heatmap for his 11 appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga is that we can mainly find him in the final third. The 23-year-old definitely supports his defenders when its absolutely needed, but hes essentially not a defensive-minded player. This can also be seen in the stats as he just makes 1.82 recoveries per game.
On the other hand, you have to give him huge credit how he permanently tries to support his teammates by giving them passing options. Extremely often we can see how he starts deep runs to then receive a through pass which doesn’t work off that often, but whenever he decides to provide a short passing option, he makes use of his good understanding of the game to find free space. In the example below, his teammate runs to the right wing and distracts two opponents which creates space in the centre in which Despodov positions to provide Emanuel Sakic an option for a simple pass.
