It’s Friday night football for Ankaragücü this week as they travel to another promoted side Erzerumspor who are still searching for their first win in the Turkish Super Lig this season. Despite their poor start to the season Erzerumspor have been performing better than their results show and it will be a tough place to go with a full stadium expected.
Ankaragücü put in another good performance last weekend with a 1-0 win over Akhisar thanks to a fantastic goal from El Kabir. The Moroccan forward has formed an impressive partnership with Youness Mokhtar who added another assist to his account and is one the teams key players.
İsmail Kartal has in the past come in for a bit of criticism from the Ankaragücü fans but he has won them over with the style of football he has the team playing. Ankaragücü top the league in total amount of passes made this season and dribbles per game. While they sit 2nd behind Trabzonspor in pass completion. That is all down to the hard work of İsmail Kartal and the management team who are showing what can be achieved when you bring in the right type of player.
Brice Dja Djede came into the team last week and played centre mid despite his favoured position being right back. He put in an excellent performance and was an example of the attitude of this Ankaragücü team where the players are giving everything and putting the team first.
Thomas Heurtaux who had an impressive debut is set to miss the next couple of games due to an injury he has picked up. Alessio Cerci will come into the team when he is ready according to İsmail Kartal with the player still not 100 percent fit.
Erzerumspor sit 2nd from bottom with 2 points taken from their first 5 games. Last weekend saw them draw 2-2 at Sivasspor. Like Ankaragucu they have a fantastic support who will make quite an atmosphere and they have enough quality in their squad including South African midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala to cause problems for Ankaragücü if they aren’t at their best.
Despite Erzerum being a difficult place to travel too, Ankaragücü still have enough quality to come away with the 3 points. The pace of El Kabir, Mokhtar and Bifouma in attack allow Ankaragücü to play and exciting counter attacking system away from home. We just need to make sure we stay solid at the back with Heaurtux being a big loss due to injury.
Well said Nadeem. However, with what we have witnessed from this Ankaragucu team over the past few weeks, we are all optimistic of bringing all 3 points back to Ankara and moving into the top half of the league.
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