EURO 2020: Why Ukraine’s talisman Roman Yaremchuk is vital to victory against North Macedonia – tactical analysis

It may have been a defeat for Ukraine versus the Netherlands, but boy did they show real heart along the way. A stunning curler from West Ham forward Andriy Yarmolenko, who was relatively absent for the rest of the game, followed up by a superbly guided headed goal by Roman Yaremchuk clawed Ukraine back into this game after being 2-0 down.

It was the 25-year-old striker who was the driving force for former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko’s side, and whenever he was involved in the play, Ukraine seemed more likely to score than at any other point. Upcoming next is a potential banana peel and a must-win against North Macedonia, who although lost 3-1 to Austria, displayed their merit for a large duration of that match – Shevchenko’s tactics have to be right.

In this tactical analysis, we are going to look at what Yaremchuk did so well against the Netherlands in the form of a scout report, what Ukraine need to do to get the best out of him going forward, and why he will be instrumental against North Macedonia.

Lovely link-up play: what went right for Yaremchuk versus the Netherlands

One consistent feature of the match against the Oranje in Yaremchuk’s case was his insistence to drop deeper or drift into wide zones to collect the ball. In these moments, the 6’1” forward would utilise his strong short-medium passing game to bring the likes of  Serie A star Ruslan Malinovskiy, Yarmolenko, and Oleksandr Zubkov into the game, before dashing off into the gap in the opposition backline. Many of his passes were either sideways or backwards, but that is not to say they were not progressive of the play.

Yaremchuk’s pass map versus the Netherlands.

The Genk striker completed 31 passes at an 81% success rate, a decent figure for a centre-forward who was constantly trying to increase the tempo in the final third for a fairly stagnant attacking unit outside of attacking-midfielder Malinovskiy who attempted to inject some attacking impetus into the match if doing so unfruitfully. It was Yaremchuk’s ingenuity that added tremendously to Ukraine’s attack, acting as a source of unpredictability that the forward line was desperately lacking.