Player Analysis: Eldor Shomurodov

Genoa endured another tumultuous season in Serie A but the northern Italian club was able to avoid relegation for the umpteenth time. Volatile president Enrico Preziosi had hired Rolando Maran at the start of 2020/21 campaign but the former Cagliari coach was sacked in December and replaced by Davide Ballardini. The coaches placed their faith in experienced forwards Goran Pandev and Mattia Destro but the others made more than their share of cameo appearances.

Croatian forward Marko Pjaca played 35 times in Serie A while Gianluca Scamacca featured in 26 Italian league games. In addition to that quartet of strikers was a 25-year-old striker from Uzbekistan called Eldor Shomurodov, who became just the second player from the former Soviet republic after Ilyos Zeytulayev to have played in Serie A. Purchased from Russian club FK Rostov for €7.5 million in October 2020, Shomurodov proved to be a surprise revelation in Italian football, scoring eight goals in 31 matches throughout his first season in Serie A, including a run five goals in the last six rounds of the campaign.

A tall and slender striker with great mobility, the Uzbek wears the number 61 on his jersey and has his first name on it instead of his surname. With Genoa often lining up in a 3-5-2 formation, the 25-year-old would play more to the left side of attack whereas Pandev would be positioned more to the right or operate deeper. The majority of Shomurodov’s goals involved the Grifone either launching a counter-attack or capitalizing on mistakes made by opposition defenses leaving themselves open.