Many questions have arose on our recent concrete pursuit of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's star, Konoplyanka. Some might have gotten his name mixed with another Ukranian attacker of the same age, Dynamo Kyiv's Andriy Yarmalenko, yet many including me would hold testament to preferring the Konoplyanka over the latter.

Why?

Recently I have taken a casual interest in the very underrated Ukrainian league, to which was done through be mesmerized by Ukrainian consistently listing impressive performances in the Champions and Europa League. Shaktar may have dropped down yet that is the product of the all their finest signings poached from Lucescu.  Other teams who consistently perform in the Europa League and versus the upper half of Europe are Dynamo Kyiv, the fearsome Metalist Kharkhiv and Kono's own team, Dnipro.

What kind of player is he? Most who have watched Dnipro in a bundle of matches will attest to how strong of a team they are, providing a lot of threat to all the best teams they have faced within the Europa League. Their main star and catalyst is Konoplyanka himself.

Mainstream football watchers will remember Kono from his impressive performances in Euro 2012 garnering all the starts and his partnership with Shevchenko.

Others will remember him for his brilliant long range goal versus England, while also controlling the grain of the whole game.

Konoplyanka will remind you of the following players:Xherdan Shaquiri, Eden Hazard, Stephan El Sharaawy,  Juan Mata, Iker Muniain, Antoinne Griezmann, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Matheu Valbuena

What do they have in common?

All modern wide/central players who have all the following common traits:
-Creative-e.g vision passing flicks etc
-Two-footed
-Brilliant dribblers
-Can provide wide play or drift in central
-Versatile
-Poor finishers yet create goals out of nothing
-Pace in the form of intelligent bursts rather than scintillating speed
-Not prolific in their stats yet contribute in numerous other areas intangible

Konoplayanka started off as a wide player who provided width yet Dnipro manager Juande Ramos has noted that his playmaking skills are underrated, hence why recently he drifts in from wide, or plays central and sometimes even deep in the Ukranian midfield whether international or for club. Since he is ambidextrous he chooses to dribbles with two-feet that compliment his excellent short pass, product of some excellent vision. He does not shoot often yet has shown the technique to shoot from most angles with either foot. Recently the development of his physique has allowed him to physically battle other players, especially outwide in his powerful dribbling style to which can change into subtle deft touches within a flash. His versatility allows him to play within the 4 quarters in the '3' of a 4-2-3-1 (including CF) and a midfield 3 if he is provided support. Naturally a central player.

Where does he fail? Consistency is not a weakness yet when a player as influential as him disappears, you likely won't see him the whole game save for a moment of brilliance in goal or a pass. He tends to dive despite his physique and his finishing is very poor. He also tends to try to dribble his way out of situations when marked, though only when wide.

Yet for a player who has been 3 time Ukranian player of the year and in Europa League team of the year 2012, we can have a talent whom at age 24 is malleable in further evolution and to Rodger's tactical needs; better to give him creative responsibility.

Of course we have little chance of signing him, as the price we intend to pay would be more than worth it-as its a small investment for what is a proven talent with complete abilities.

I would be over the moon if we acquire his signature. Trouble is, Dnipro are a hard club to negotiate with and their star will not come cheap.

now its clear that we wont get him

Great post. Thanks for that, honestly had no idea on who he is.

He's in the age group I want us to start signing, around the 23-25 range where players start to mature and are about to approach their "peak years". I'm sick and tired of buying "potential" when we have ATLEAST 5 kids that can go on to be class but just lack that experience in the first team. It's clear we need players (and finally Rodgers see's this) to improve the initial starting XI.

Unfortunately, I still have no idea why we're interested in Konoplyanka (sp?) when it's clear we lack a number 10 and cover for Lucas. I guess it's a marquee type signing to take the pressure off the committee after a failure of a window... but hopefully he can come and do a job for us. We do need to take pressure off of SAS but we also had other much bigger priorities that we didn't deal with.

Arq

I keep telling myself not to get attached to players until we officially sign them but frickin happens every time. I'll be devastated if we don't sign him now.

Seen a lot of people saying we don't need him...really ?

Just take a look at the bench yesterday. We have 15 more league games to go...and not all games will go as perfectly as last night...and some time you need proper option off the bench, not the tragic scenes of Aspas,Moses,Alberto as of yesterday.

We also should remember Sterling is 19, and we shouldn't burn him out....so this signing actually does make sense.

Yesterday I said we have more pressing matters in the team to attend to, and obviously we do. But I never said we don't need him. I'd take him in a heart beat right now. Good players are very rare to come.

Natalie Portman wrote:Seen a lot of people saying we don't need him...really ?

Just take a look at the bench yesterday. We have 15 more league games to go...and not all games will go as perfectly as last night...and some time you need proper option off the bench, not the tragic scenes of Aspas,Moses,Alberto as of yesterday.

We also should remember Sterling is 19, and we shouldn't burn him out....so this signing actually does make sense.

Seen a lot of people saying we don't need him or don't see him as a main priority right now as that restricts us for signing cover for Lucas/ a number 10 / getting an emergency loan at full back?

Natalie Portman wrote:Seen a lot of people saying we don't need him...really ?

Just take a look at the bench yesterday. We have 15 more league games to go...and not all games will go as perfectly as last night...and some time you need proper option off the bench, not the tragic scenes of Aspas,Moses,Alberto as of yesterday.

We also should remember Sterling is 19, and we shouldn't burn him out....so this signing actually does make sense.

At least our bench had forwards in the Everton game. It had no CMs.

Meanwhile, former Ukraine and Arsenal defender Oleg Luzhny does not believe Konoplyanka is suited to Premier League football.

“I don’t think the English league is right for him,” he is quoted as telling the Ukrainian media. “Konoplyanka’s style of play is better suited to Italy or Spain. The game in England is totally different. It’s about power -- you have to run back and forth, back and forth. You run at speed up and down, and it’s like that for 90 minutes.

“I saw how he played in the [World Cup qualification playoff] second leg against France, when Ukraine lost 3-0, and he was like a headless chicken.

“It is a completely different level. When you play in the Ukraine, you can afford not to run. In the match against France, it was evident that Konoplyanka barely runs at all. Konoplyanka is a good player, but he is suited to Spain or Italy, not England.”

Hope this isn't true.