Austrian Bundesliga 2018/19 Tactical Analysis: Andrei Ivan at Rapid Vienna

Andrei Ivan is a 22-year-old winger from Romania who played this season for Rapid Vienna in the Austrian Bundesliga. He’s got a contract with Krasnodar but was on loan this season at the club that is based in the capital of Austria. With just 22 years Ivan already played 157 senior games for club and country. This tactical analysis will show you what makes the young winger such an interesting player and what his strengths and weaknesses are.

His career so far

He played for his boyhood club Moreni until he was 15 years old.  In 2012 he joined Sporting Pitesti and stayed there two years before he moved to Craiova who are in Romania’s first division. There, he became part of the senior team at the age of 16 in 2014.

In his final season at Craiova, he scored nine goals and assisted four times in 33 league appearances. In addition, he debuted for Romanias senior team in 2015 and since then registered seven caps for the senior team of his country. Due to these stats and appearances in the national team, Krasnodar took notice of him and signed the young winger in the summer of 2017.

However, in the 2017/18 campaign, he played in seven out of 30 games in the Russian Premier League. In addition, he started in none of them so he only totalled 28 minutes on the pitch. It was clear that the Romanian needed either a transfer or a loan to gain experience at another club. Considering this, he joined Rapid Vienna on loan last summer. He scored three goals and assisted once in 40 appearances for the Hütteldorfer in the Austrian Bundesliga. They rejected the option to buy him after this loan and so he will return to Krasnodar this summer.

Decision-making

You often hear that young players have the talent to become a great player, but they often choose the wrong option. Should they pass back to save possession, should they dribble, or should they try to go for goal instead of assisting one of their teammates? Youngsters often need to gain experience to improve their decision-making.

However, Ivan seems to already have this experience due to his 157 games in senior football. Even though he’s an offensive-orientated winger, he knows when to calm down the game and just lay off the ball for one of his deeper positioned teammates. In the image below, his team is able to regain possession and he receives the ball. Since Demarai Gray tries immediately to put pressure on him, he decides to lay the ball off to one of his teammates.

In another situation, his team is once more able to win back the ball due to an interception. The ball comes to Ivan, who has got a lot of space in front of him. In light of this, he uses his speed to dribble into the respective zone. He saw the opportunity to get into a dangerous area and so he decided to not lay the ball off, but to get forward.

Seconds later he has to make yet another decision. Should he keep the ball and try to create something on his own, or should he pass the ball? Since he would be alone against four English U21 players, he decides to pass the ball to George Puscas who has a lot of space.