Nadezhda CSKA, the talent of Krasnodar and the star of the Wings: which of the young Russian players excelled in the RPL in the spring

Nikita Krivtsov, 19 years old (Krasnodar)

12 RPL games after winter break, 2 goals + assist

Nizhny Novgorod football graduate Nikita Krivtsov was at the center of a scandal last year.

The RPL clubs began to take an interest in him, but the midfielder's agent Alexander Manyakov accused his client of stopping contacting him and starting to work with his coach Vladimir Kazakov.

The player was even threatened with disqualification, but in the end it worked out.

In August, he moved to Krasnodar for a symbolic €90 thousand. In the fall, Nikita rarely got practice in the first team, although he regularly worked with the first team, and was more often content with substitutions.

However, in the spring, with the departure of a number of legionnaires from the team, everything changed.

Now, without the midfielder of the youth national team of Russia, the center of the field of the southerners is impossible to imagine.

After the resumption of the season, he did not get into the base only once, and then due to injury.

In the southern derby with Rostov, finally, the first goal came, and in the meeting with CSKA, the footballer demonstrated the presence of an excellent blow.

He sent the ball from outside the penalty area to the far top nine without a chance for Igor Akinfeev and brought the team victory.

Most often, Kryvtsov takes a place in the support zone along with another young performer Alexander Chernikov.

In pairs, he is responsible for starting attacks and moving the ball.

On average, for a match in the national championship, he performs 25.9 passes with a high accuracy for a person in his position - 78.4%.

At the same time, Nikita does not avoid rough work and willingly enters into martial arts, and excellent physical data allow him to regularly emerge victorious from them (1.3 tackles, 0.7 interceptions, 0.3 blocked strikes on average per game).

Kirill Shchetinin, 20 (Rostov)

10 RPL games after winter break, 2 goals + assist

In addition to Krasnodar, he was forced to rely on young players and Rostov.

The losses of this team were not as serious as those of the neighbors, but still very sensitive.

Gone are game-defining legionnaires such as Pontus Almqvist, Kento Hashimoto and Dennis Hadjikadunich.

However, this did not affect the results of the yellow-blue.

On the contrary, after the return of Valery Karpin, they won four matches in a row.

Kirill Shchetinin became one of the main characters of the updated Rostov.

He moved to the club on loan last summer, but was on the bench.

But in the second part of the championship, he practically did not fall out of the base.

Moreover, the pupil of Lokomotiv does not take the usual position on the left flank, but the place of one of the two insiders, along with the experienced Khoren Bayramyan.

In this role, he looks very convincing.

The player moves the ball well between the lines and aims to hit.

It is no coincidence that according to this indicator, he ranks fifth in the team of the remaining players in it (an average of 1.2 per meeting).

Moreover, 0.9 of them are shots from outside the penalty area.

Actually, he hit the Lokomotiv gate with just a magnificent long-range shot.

But at the same time, Shchetinin is ready to assist partners.

What is worth at least his thin cutting assist on Nikolai Komlichenko in the game with Arsenal.

It is possible that in the summer Kirill will have a difficult choice: to stay at Rostov or return to Zenit and try to compete for a place at the base there.

However, in St. Petersburg they do not intend to lose a talented wagon, and in April they denied information about the redemption of the rights to the player by yellow-blue.

Andrey Langovich, 18 years old (Rostov)

10 matches in the RPL after the winter break

On the right flank of Rostov's defense, Andrey Langovich is now almost indispensable.

The successes of the 18-year-old defender of the fans are especially encouraging, because he is not only a pupil of the club, but was also born in Rostov-on-Don.

Local football players rarely get to the base of the team.

Andrei attracted the attention of the coaching staff back in the winter of 2021.

Then a capable football player went to the training camp with the first team.

And already in the current season, he began to periodically enter the field.

Moreover, in the case of Langovich, it cannot be said that he took the place of one of the foreigners who left.

The able-bodied defender took advantage of the injury of the experienced Denis Terentiev and did not give his place to him.

Andrei does not shine with unique technique and rarely joins attacks, but he perfectly copes with his direct duties and cements the entire edge, and in terms of the number of tackles (1.9 on average per match) he is one of the best in the team.

The progress of the young defender has already been noticed in the youth team, where he received his debut call in March.

A month later, the club extended his contract with him immediately for five years.

Kirill Kravtsov, 19 years old (Nizhny Novgorod)

11 matches in the RPL after the winter break, goal + assist + earned penalty

Kirill Kravtsov, like Shchetinin, tried to prove himself in the "Zenith".

It was objectively extremely difficult for the 19-year-old defensive midfielder to do this, although this season he regularly came on as a substitute and even spent 14 minutes in the Champions League.

It was obvious that a talented pupil, in order not to stop in development, needs playing practice.

He received it in Nizhny Novgorod, which is headed by the best scorer in the history of the St. Petersburg club, Alexander Kerzhakov.

The young specialist organized a warm welcome for Kirill and immediately allocated him one of two places in the support zone.

Since then, the midfielder has become an indispensable performer for the RPL debutant.

And the coach himself received a midfielder with virtually no weaknesses, because he is good both in destruction and in creation.

Kravtsov is the best in the team in terms of the number of tackles (2.5 on average per game), but at the same time he is the leader in the number of successful dribbling attempts (1.6).

Another indicative moment is that he makes the most passes in the team (41.5 with an accuracy of 77.2%).

That is, the whole game is really built through a young football player.

Moreover, in the lost match with Lokomotiv (1:2), Kravtsov scored the first goal in the Premier League, converting the moment after a corner.

In a meeting with "Rostov" (2:1), he gave an assist to Richie Ennin from his own half of the field.

And in the confrontation with his native Zenit, he earned a decisive penalty, which helped the team score three points and maintain a residence permit in the RPL.

The lease agreement with Nizhny Novgorod is valid until June 2023, but it is possible that Sergei Semak would like to return it earlier.

Artyom Karpukas, 

19 years old (Lokomotiv)

6 matches in the RPL after the winter break

In the second part of the completed RPL season, as a whole, many talented midfielders were revealed.

One of them was Artyom Karpukas.

Even in winter, the young pupil of the club did not even think about playing in the first team and was content with playing for Kazanka in FNL-2 and the youth team of Loko.

However, in the spring, Marvin Compper began to include the player in the application, and in the end he made a bet on him in the center of the field.

As a result, the midfielder in the last seven rounds hit the start five times.

Moreover, he actually won the competition from the Frenchman Alexis Beck-Beck acquired last year for € 6 million.

In some games, he took a place in the duo of insiders, in others he fell into the support zone.

In destruction, Karpukas is not inferior even to Dmitry Barinov.

For comparison, he outperformed the national team defender in the average number of interceptions (2.2 vs. 1.9 on average per game) and only slightly lost to him in tackles (1.8 vs. 2.0).

At the same time, Artyom cannot be called a performer who is solely responsible for disrupting other people's attacks.

On the contrary, he has good technique and is comfortable under pressure, managing to give 83.4% of accurate passes.

This allows him to start the offensive of the railroad from the depths and make the right decisions at these moments.

Alexander Kovalenko, 18 years old ("Wings of the Soviets")

12 matches in the RPL after the winter break

In many ways, Alexander Kovalenko is similar to Karpukas, who is only a year younger than him.

In the first part of the season, he was also not in demand in the first team of the Wings, but in the second part he took part in almost all matches and got into the base five times.

The departure of Danila Prutsev to Spartak helped.

Alexander is another graduate of Chertanov as part of the Samara team.

Many were waiting for the most talented young footballer of the country, Sergey Pinyaev, to reveal himself, and instead of him, a station wagon born in 2003 fired.

The grandson of the champion of the USSR and the owner of the Cup of the country Alexander Kovalenko is somewhat reminiscent of Karpukas in the manner of the game.

In particular, he boldly enters into martial arts, although due to his age and not fully formed muscles, he does not always win them.

Nevertheless, at the end of the season, he took second place in the team in terms of the number of tackles (1.8 on average per match) and was in the top ten in steals (0.8), if you do not take into account the performers who left the team.

Most often he was used in the position of the central midfielder, but he went out both under the striker and on the flanks of the attack.

Moreover, he is able to play at the forefront of the attack.

Kovalenko has an incredible football intellect and is great at sharpening the game with sharp passes.

He was especially successful in the match with Krasnodar, where in 90 minutes he made 94.2% of accurate passes, amazing for his role, one of which became key.

And on average, Alexander gives 83.6% of accurate passes per game.

Alexander Rudenko, 23 (Khimki)

11 matches in the RPL after the winter break, 2 goals

Khimki in the spring can be compared with Rostov.

The Moscow Region team also changed their coach and lost a number of leading legionnaires, but issued a winning streak and avoided a direct relegation from the RPL.

And thanks to the departure of foreigners, young Russians got their chance.

In particular, Alexander Rudenko managed to use it.

The striker has long attracted the attention of fans and scored a lot in the FNL, but never got a chance in the first team of his native Spartak and in 2020 went to Sochi for practice.

And in early 2022, the forward finally became a free agent and signed a full contract with Khimki.

There he was prepared for the role of a reservist, because in the first rounds after the resumption of the season, another newcomer, Didier Lamkel Ze, showed himself great.

But the African soon went on loan to Antwerp, and Rudenko became the main striker.

And Alexander turned out to be exactly the player that Khimki needed.

In a predominantly counter-attacking team, the fast forward got the opportunity to show his strengths.

And the most striking for him was the match with CSKA, in which the pupil of Spartak scored twice and could well score a hat-trick.

Egor Ushakov, 19 years old (CSKA)

7 matches in the RPL after the winter break, goal + assist

The example of Yegor Ushakov stands out from the general series, because not a single foreign player left CSKA in the spring.

The more valuable is the rise of the 19-year-old midfielder, which few people have heard of before.

In the match of the 23rd round with the Urals, due to personnel problems, the midfielder first appeared in the application of the army team, and in the middle of the second half he replaced the injured Igor Diveev and took a place on the right edge of the midfield.

Ushakov boldly entered the game and flashed technique and speed several times, and in the end he earned a penalty for his partners, forcing Leo Goglichidze to foul himself.

True, in the time added by the referee, he himself had already violated the rules on the Georgian, but the referee, after watching the replay, did not appoint a penalty kick.

And in the previously mentioned meeting with Khimki, Egor was at the base and after half an hour of the game he scored the debut goal in his adult career.

In the future, he regularly came out for replacements.

Already in the next season, Yegor may well gain a foothold in the base of the team.

The reason for this is the end of the career of Mario Fernandez.

The young graduate of the club in some games replaced the naturalized Brazilian on the right side and did a good job with his duties.

In general, he stands out for his enviable versatility, because he is able to close not only both flanks, but also play in attack and even in the center of the field.

There is a history of coping behind the winger's success as he missed almost a year due to health issues.

At the end of 2020, he received a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone, and then underwent an unsuccessful operation, which seriously delayed the recovery process.

But a native of Krasnogorsk did not give up and fulfilled his dream.