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This past season was a breakout year for the Armenian midfielder as he amassed a total of 25 league goals, which is now a Ukrainian Premier League record. That record was previously held by Dynamo Kyiv legends, Serhiy Rebrov & Maksim Shatskikh, both of who scored 22 goals in 1998 and 2003 respectively. In his first two seasons at Shakhtar, Mkhitaryan played 64 games scored 15 goals; in 39 games in the 2012/13 season, he managed 25 goals. He also played in his 100th league match in Ukrainian domestic football on March 16th of this year.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has played 39 games for his national team, at the time of writing, scoring 11 goals. His most recent goal was in Armenia’s famous 4-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Denmark in Copenhagen, earlier this month.
Styles, Strengths, and Weaknesses
Henrikh is most prolific when he is playing right behind the first striker. When he is behind the central striker with the ball, space opens up for the Armenian midfielder and creates fantastic goal scoring opportunities with his great vision of the play happening in front of him and finding the perfect pass to his surrounding teammates. For anyone that had ever watched his father play in the 80s, may say that his style of play emulates that of his father.
His creativity, technique, and movement, all help confuse the back four of many defenses across the Ukrainian Premier League. And because of his ability, Henrikh Mkhitaryan pretty much has an automatic spot in the national team, as he is by far one of the best, if not the best midfielder, on the current Armenian roster. With all the experience he has, it is almost a guarantee that he will be in the Armenian team for all of their major matches.
Mkhitaryan’s work rate is absolutely sensational. It seems like he never takes a second off from the play, whenever I have seen him. Henrikh will help build up play, starting from the half way line as the back four retain possession. Then, if the play ever broke down because of a bad pass, or whatever the reason may be, Henrikh will track all the way back to help out his defence. In other words, he never stops running, ever. I do not know where he gets all of the energy that he does for the full ninety minutes.
Comparisons have been made with Kaka and Frank Lampard, both of whom play in similar positions but different roles. So, you could say that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a combination of both, positioned behind the striker with the ability to take on the opposition ahead of him, while also making late runs into the box.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has an incredible burst of pace as well. His ability to run at defences comes with his raw speed. He confessed in this interview to News.am that he could have been a sprinter, if not a footballer. Henrikh mentioned in this interview with Shakhtar’s official website that he takes inspiration from Zinedine Zidane “I appreciated the style of Zinedine Zidane, what he did on the pitch. He was like a magician to me.” He is no Zidane, but he does have that element of magic on the pitch.
