Ondrej Mazuch

BASIC INFO:

Full name: Ondrej Mazuch
Club: Fiorentina
Previous teams: FC Brno
Date of birth: 15/03/1989
Place of birth: Hodonin, Czech Republic
Height & Weight: 189 cm, 88 kg
Right-footed
U17, U19, U20, U21 International


IDEAL POSITION: Centre Back

STRENGTHS:

Tall, strong and stout. Has pace and doesn`t get complicated with the ball in delicate situations. Good individual technique, able to offer a clean exit of the ball from his position, with criteria. Excellent in aerial game, very dangerous hitting the crosses with head from free kicks. Solid, disciplined, restrained and selfless. Always tries to give his best for the benefit of the team. He's a versatile football player: has played also as right back and deffensive midfielder. Has personality, a strong temper and isn´t afraid of assuming responsabilities. Heavy and very confident in his qualities, likes to anticipate the attacker when he defends, is also very sticky when he has to do individual coverages. Quite quick for his body, especially in short distances, but also has good speed in long distances. Explosive. Difficult to be ahead of him, always has his mind inside the game, serious and concentrated. Powerful, leathery and with great aerobic capacity. Always available to help teammates. Good defender of 1 vs 1 situations, knows how to use his body. Can do tactical fouls, knows when to do them. Constant, reliable and complete. Good ball touch. Very secure.

WEAKNESSES:

Sometimes makes mistakes when placing in the pitch, he can break the offside line. He isn´t bad in this aspect, but he can improve his tactical ability. Maybe he lacks of a bit of top speed. Feels more confortable with the deffensive line near the own goal, suffers more when he has to play forward near the midfield line, however normally his performances are also very good. Needs to have minutes to continue developing and gaining experience, in Fiorentina he is going to have too much rivalry to have opportunities. Sometimes he is too harsh at tackling and the way he plays. He is quite commonly booked. Sometimes arrives late or makes some individual mistakes due to inexperience, not too often.

COMPARISON: Martin Skrtel/David Wheater

ADDITIONAL INFO:

- Is one of the most encouraging prospects of the Czech Republic, who is a good country giving to soccer very interesting full backs: Tomas Ujfalusi, David Rozenhal and youngsters like Ondrej Mazuch, Jan Simunek, Marek Suchy, Jan Polak or Roman Brunclik seem to have qualities to become very good players.

- Has take part of European U17 2006, European U19 2006 and World Cup U20 2007 with Czech Republic, having an outstanding role and making very good appearances. In European U17 he played as centre back and helped the team to arrive until the final, where they were defeated by Russia in penaltys. In European U19 his position was right back, they arrived to semifinals, knocked down by Scotland. And in World Cup 2007 again as a full back and with the help of the teammates they were finalists, but were defeated by Argentina.

- Was signed up by Fiorentina in last season`s winter for a fee next to 3 million euros. Other clubs like Bayer Leverkusen or Arsenal were also very interested in obtaining his services. Before signing with the Italian team he played 24 matches with FC Brno in Gambrinus League.

- Along with Manuel Da Costa is one of the hottest prospects in the World in his position, both from Fiorentina. If they continue progressing and understand each other, they can become the best couple of central defenders in the close future.


EVALUATION/POTENTIAL: 8,6/10

Super complete and solid, with calm and always giving the face. Great physic, with very good technical and mental qualities aswell. He is a personal bet.

Written by Joan Peris, 23 August 2008. hoeman5beta@hotmail.com

Recommended links:

Description of Ondrej Mazuch at "Perlas del Fútbol" (Written in 18/10/2006, Spanish)
Ondrej Mazuch in Wikipedia
Ondrej Mazuch report in checheche.net (Spanish)

Pics: www.1fcbrno.cz, www.daylife.com (AP Photo)