Less creativity and goals: how the absence of Hugo Videmont affected the game of Aktobe
https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/ultimolibero/3085972.htmlThe 2022 season is ambiguous for Aktobe. The West Kazakhstan team started the season unstably, but in the summer they joined the championship race. Three rounds before the end of the KPL, Andrei Karpovich's team leads the table, while having many problems both with the squad and the game in attack.
French midfielder Hugo Videmont, having supplemented the Aktobe squad in the winter off-season, without exaggeration became one of the best newcomers in the league. The 29-year-old legionnaire has a number of qualities on which the game of the "red and white" was built. His injury and the lack of a creative midfielder affect the productivity of the Aktobe team in the final third, as confirmed by statistics.
Having unstable results in March and April, in May Aktobe reached good shape, beating its direct competitors. At the same time, Aktobe scored a lot and also conceded quite a lot. After the group stage of the Kazakhstan Cup, Aktobe began to play more reliably in defense, but lost sharpness in attack. One reason is the absence of Hugo Videmont.
Videmont played his last match for the Red and Whites on August 21 against Ordabasy. The Frenchman's goal helped his team to take three points but at the end of that match it finally became clear that Hugo needed an operation. By the way, he scored a goal against the Shymkent team already being injured.
What has changed in Aktobe's game in Videmont's absence?
First of all, the Aktobe team began to score less. Before Videmont's injury Aktobe had scored 23 goals, with only 13 in his absence. Just imagine: without the French legionnaire, Aktobe scored 10 fewer goals!
At the same time, out of 23 goals scored Hugo has 8, as well as two assists. The reasons are understandable: Videmont created a lot for his teammates and converted scoring chances himself. Aktobe depended on him in the attack, if not for everything, then for a lot.
Another indicator is Aktobe's scoring chances (average per match): with Videmont it was 1.64, without him - 1.18. The percentages of realized moments are also eloquent: 31% - with Videmont versus 24% without him.
The number of dribbles (average per game) dropped from 24 to 20; the number of successful dribbles from 14 to 11. This is also quite understandable, since Videmont is also the best dribbler of the Aktobe team. Largely due to his individual qualities, Hugo created tension near the opponents' goal.
Videmont's injury also affected the accuracy of team shots. With Hugo the team averaged 5 shots on target, without him this figure expectedly dropped to 4.6 shots.
However, the absence of one of the leaders forced the coaching staff of Aktobe to rebuild the team's game in attack. The attacking group of the Aktobe team began to treat the created scoring chances more carefully, as a result, the xG indicator (expected goals) after August increased from 1.85 to 1.98.
The fact is that after Aktobe entered the group of leaders in the standings, most of the championship teams began to tighten in their own penalty area, therefore, the "red and white" needed to make more efforts to open up the opponents' defense. In such cases Videmont's creativity, dribbling and a quality mid-range shot would had came in handy. In the absence of Hugo, Shina, Baitana, Balashov and others tried to take on the role of leader, but all the listed players lack the stability that the Frenchman had.
Hugo Videmont's injury is not the main problem of Aktobe's difficult games and results in the last two months, but one of the key ones for sure. Aktobe without Videmont is like Astana without Tomasov or Tobol without Tosic. A team that sets big goals for the season should have at least two players of Videmont's level in its squad, but the Aktobe team does not have them. There is no one to replace the Frenchman. It remains to finish the season with those who are, snatching every victory on character.
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