Vladyslav Vanat is quickly growing into a household name in Ukraine.

The Dynamo Kyiv striker has enjoyed a fantastic first half of the 2023-24 season, helping his club top the scoring charts in the Ukrainian Premier League.

Dynamo have already netted 33 times in the league this term in just 14 matches; league leaders Kryvbas KR are second with 31 strikes in 17 games.

They currently sit fifth in the standings but are six points adrift of top spot and can take a three-point lead if they win their games in hand.

An interesting feature of Kyiv’s attack has been the manner in which they’ve distributed the goalscoring responsibility.

As many as eight players have scored at least two goals, while four have scored four or more goals.

Vanat falls in the latter category with seven strikes in 13 outings and is the joint top-scorer in the Ukrainian top-flight this term alongside Kryvbas’ Oleh Kozhushko.

But who exactly is he?

This Vladyslav Vanat scout report and tactical analysis will delve into the 22-year-old’s goalscoring exploits while understanding his role in Kyiv’s tactics.

Who is Vladyslav Vanat?

Vanat, born January 4, 2002, is Dynamo Kyiv through and through.

The youngster was a part of their academy from 2015 to 2018 before breaking into their U17 team.

In January 2019, he had already been fast-tracked to the U19s, and just six months later, he was also playing for Kyiv’s reserve side.

Vanat was then promoted to the first team in 2021, but was instantly loaned out to fellow Ukrainian Premier League side Chornomorets Odessa, for whom he scored thrice in 18 matches during the 2021-22 season.

He returned to Kyiv for the 2022-23 season and enjoyed an excellent debut campaign for the first team, netting 12 goals in 25 league matches while also scoring once in the UEFA Europa League.

The Ukrainian has started the ongoing season in great form as well, already scoring seven goals in 13 matches and is on track to eclipse his record from last season.

He has also laid out three assists, one more than he managed in the whole of last season.

His contract with Kyiv notably expires next summer.

Vanat has already made his debut for Ukraine, featuring five times for them (two starts) last year, but is yet to score his first senior international goal.

He has, however, netted four goals and laid out two assists in 12 outings for Ukraine’s U21 side.

Vladyslav Vanat Player Profile

Vanat, in many ways, is a traditional centre-forward.

This season, he has been the focal point of Kyiv’s attack, with former manager Mircea Lucescu and current boss Oleksandr Shovkovskyi both preferring to use a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Vanat has usually been flanked by Vladyslav Kabaev on the left and Oleksandr Karavaev on the right, with skipper Vitaliy Buyalskyi operating as the 10.

The trio’s abilities have allowed Vanat to occupy central areas and stay closer to or inside the box, as indicated by his heatmap below.

Vladyslav Vanat Heat Map

Kyiv usually tend to have more of the ball than their opponents and average 55.76% possession per game in the league this season, while attempting 469.07 passes per game with 86.06% accuracy.

They attempt a high volume of shots (17.93 per game) and get a little over 1/3rd of them on target (36.6%).

While they are a threat with their build-up play, 51.6% of their counterattacks also end in shots, allowing them to cause problems on that front as well.

Vanat offers both pace and finishes at a higher rate than his team, which makes him a key contributor in positional play and counter-attacks, which this report will explore further.

Dynamo Kyiv’s playing style and where Vladyslav Vanat fits in

Dynamo Kyiv’s system requires their wingers, and two holding midfielders often drop back to assist playing out from the back.

The full-backs rarely advance too far forward in the initial stages but press up once the ball passes the first two lines of the opposition.

Consider the following sequence, where Kyiv’s defenders initially circulate the ball to the left flank, where the winger drops back to play a pass to pull more opposition players to this flank.

The centre-backs, goalkeeper and one holding midfielder then exchange passes to find the right-back, who has acres of space due to possession being concentrated on the left.

As he moves forward, Kyiv’s right-winger also moves out to the touchline, while we get our first sight of Vanat (marked in black), who is the furthest forward and looking to get in between the centre-backs.

This obviously differs in counterattacks, such as in the example below.

With limited outlet passes, Kyiv usually defend corners with most of their players in the box.

In this case, they clear a corner to a player near the box, who in turn slips a forward in on the right.

Vanat is initially jogging forward, waiting for the moment to accelerate.

The moment the player skips past his marker, that is his cue to charge forward, and he picks up the pace.

In this case, the retreating defenders do well to cut out any space for Vanat, forcing the player on the ball to simply go for the shorter pass.

A few alternate cases of Kyiv counter-attacks have also ended in Vanat changing his pace to drop behind the defence to create space for a shot or pass.

Overall, that shows that he is adaptable to the situation at hand.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of his goalscoring!

Vladyslav Vanat – Instinctive finishing and excellent positioning

Vanat is a high-volume shooter, averaging 3.49 shots per game.

He gets 39% of those shots on target and has scored six non-penalty goals from a non-penalty expected goals (npxG) figure of 6.65.

Vladyslav Vanat Shot Map

As his shot map below shows, most of Vanat’s shots are inside the box; he has taken only nine shots from outside the area and gotten none on target (four missed, five blocked).

Five of his six goals have come from central locations within the box.

Vanat’s instinctive finishing is one aspect that has stood out this season.

Consider the example below from Kyiv’s 4-1 win over Minaj on the opening day of the season.

A ball floated in is dealt with terribly by the Minaj defence, and Vanat reacts quickest to get to the ball despite trailing two defenders.

If he takes a touch here, there’s a chance a defender closes him down.

Realising that, he takes it in his stride and blasts it past the goalkeeper before he can react to open his and Kyiv’s account for the season.

Apart from his goalscoring instinct, what also stands out is the power of his shot.

This also comes through in his strike against Obolon in August last year.

Kyiv builds the move with some excellent one-touch passing before slipping in Vanat, who follows the play throughout and times his run brilliantly to get in behind the defence.

He takes a touch before firing it into the top corner at the goalkeeper’s near-post, once again giving the latter no time to react.

Another excellent example of where his movement causes problems and provides a definitive end result is his goal against Metalist 1925 in a 4-2 win in December.

In this instance, Vanat is initially an inch ahead of his marker as the corner is about to be taken.

However, he changes direction and pace brilliantly to get behind his marker and establish some separation.

With his eyes on the ball throughout, he finds space at the near-post, leaps higher than anyone else and scores with a bullet header.

While most of Vanat’s goals this term have been scored with his right foot, he can pull off a few surprises with his left as well, as he did in this sequence below from Kyiv’s 5-1 win over Oleksandria on Matchday 27 of last season.

The Ukrainian sits down a defender by faking a shot on his preferred right foot before gliding past another by taking a touch with his left and then placing the ball into the far corner.

Vladyslav Vanat Chance creation and Assists

Vladyslav Vanat’s passing is still a work in progress.

While Dynamo Kyiv are not finding him often enough (12.44 passes received per game), he has still averaged 17.56 passes per game.

His accuracy is just 76.7%, though, and certainly warrants improvement, given that he attempts only 2.9 forward passes per game.

Interestingly, he completes an above-average 64.7% of those passes.

His passing into the final third (1.11 at 76.9% accuracy) and into the penalty area (1.02 at 66.7%), while reasonably accurate, need to increase in volume.

This season, Vanat has managed three assists from an expected assist tally of 1.22, which is certainly commendable.

His passing into the final third (1.11 at 76.9% accuracy) and into the penalty area (1.02 at 66.7%) have been primary reasons for the same, though the volume of both could undoubtedly improve.

Here’s a look at his assist for Sergiy Sydorchuk in Kyiv’s 3-2 defeat to Chornomorets back in August.

On the counter, Vanat is isolated against a defender, who he easily beats to get to the byline before fending off from another defender.

He then looks up to find an open pass, and Sydorchuk races onto it before finding the bottom corner with a first-time finish.

Another of his assists came in Kyiv’s 2-0 win over Vorskla Poltava in September.

On this occasion, Vanat receives a pass from midfield and effortlessly backheels it to Nazar Voloshyn to take out one defender.

Voloshyn then gets past two players who are slower to react and scores in just the fifth minute of the game.

As explained in the previous case, one reason for the need for more consistent accuracy in Vanat’s passing is his tendency to attempt first-time passes.

When these do come off, like they did against Vorskla or in this sequence from Kyiv’s 2-0 win over Rukh Lviv in November last year, they lead to good opportunities, sometimes even for himself.

Here, Vanat backheels the ball to his teammate after receiving the ball from midfield, and the latter slips him in.

Vanat receives it in the area after running off the back of a defender.

He skips past a defender, takes a touch and gets his shot away towards the far corner but is denied by a good save by the goalkeeper.

Vladyslav Vanat Dribbling

Vanat’s dribbling is also a massive asset for this Kyiv team, and he has tasted some success in that regard, completing 52.9% of his 2.9 dribble attempts per game.

As seen earlier, the 22-year-old has pace to burn and can accelerate and decelerate at will.

This also helps fashion chances for himself and his teammates.

Consider this play from Kyiv’s 3-2 defeat to Polissya in October last year.

Vanat picks the ball up on the edge of the final third, skips past a couple of players and releases a pass just before he can get tackled.

He gets the return pass and shoots, and while the effort is blocked, it shows the extent to which his change of pace and dribbling can help fashion chances.

In other cases, a simple turn off the ball allows him to create space, as in the sequence below.

As a throw-in comes in, Vanat is tightly marked by a defender but swivels off of him to collect the ball on the other side, which suddenly puts the opposition on high alert.

He then goes on to keep the ball under pressure from another defender as well.

Vladyslav Vanat Weaknesses

Vladyslav Vanat undoubtedly possesses talent, but his disciplinary record hasn’t been great, with the forward picking up five yellow cards last season and already being dismissed once this term.

A significant weakness in Vanat’s game that will likely improve as time goes on is his tendency to snatch at chances.

For a player who takes most of his shots from inside the box, the shots-on-target figure of 39% can certainly be improved.

Consider the sequence below from Kyiv’s match against Vorskla.

A mishit shot ends up at Vanat’s feet inside the box, and he faces no immediate pressure, with both centre-backs quite some distance away.

Yet, he never really settles himself and takes a shot from an awkward position with his weaker foot, ultimately putting a presentable opportunity well wide of the post.

As mentioned earlier, his passing still needs work, while his hold-up play and off-the-ball movement still require plenty of fine-tuning.

Kyiv do not require it, but those are parts of his game he has to improve on if he is to crack it into the top five European leagues.

His 9.2 possession losses per game also need to reduce, though it should do so as his passing improves.

Lastly, Vanat’s duel success rate is fairly poor as well.

Vanat has contested a sizeable 17.64 duels per game in the league this season but won just 31.9% of them.

Despite boasting a height of 182 cm (nearly six feet), he has struggled to win aerial duels (18.5% success rate on 2.3 per game), while his offensive duel win percentage stands at just 32.2%.

Conclusion

As per our analysis, Vladyslav Vanat is an exciting footballer who will only improve on the pitch with more playing time, and his goals outweigh the chinks in his armour at the moment.

Dynamo Kyiv have long produced quality footballers, and Vanat certainly seems to be another addition to that list.

With consistency and more work on his passing and discipline, the 22-year-old could soon be knocking at the doors of some top clubs.