Personnel revolution at the start of the season and problems in the attack
At the start of the season, few could have imagined that after 13 rounds Spartak and Dynamo will be in the second half of the tournament table, and blue and white will completely drop into the relegation zone. Then the future of two metropolitan grandees seemed quite cloudless. Dynamo, finally, received funds for a serious strengthening and, in addition, returned to their native arena, and the red-and-white started a massive restructuring led by Oleg Kononov.
Unfortunately for the fans of both clubs, this process turned out to be very painful for both Dynamo and Spartak. The first club spent more than € 30 million in the summer transfer window (according to Transfermarkt), and Maximilian Filip’s purchase from Dortmund Borussia for € 20 million was a record. € 6 million the blue and white paid for Clinton N'Zhye, another € 5.5 million for the talented 20-year-old Pole Sebastian Szymanski.
However, the newcomers did not succeed in becoming the team leaders. Philip, although he scored in the first two matches, in other meetings was much less noticeable, and then completely injured. N'Zhye, playing on the flanks of attack, often looked unconvincing and did not realize a lot of moments. And Szymanski has not yet fully adapted to a new place, moreover, for him this is the first legionary experience in his career.
Other newcomers, for whom less money was paid or who came for free, did not prove themselves at all. Defender Igor Kalinin did not enter the field, Oscar Hiljemark, who came from Serie A, was content with exiting the field from the bench, and striker Ramil Sheydayev has not yet scored a single goal. Sylvester Igbun, who switched from Ufa, differs in a favorable direction from him, who scored a double in the match against Sochi.
Similar processes in the summer took place at Spartak. The team was actively rebuilding on the go. At the same time, the red and white released immediately three key players: Luis Adriano, Zé Luis and Fernando. Without them, problems began in the game of the Moscow team. Serious spending on the transfer market did not help either - € 42 million. Obviously, Alex Kral (€ 12 million), Guus Till (€ 18 million), Jordan Larsson (€ 4 million), Esekiel Ponce (€ 3 million) and others will need time on adaptation.
At the same time, both clubs, although they allowed themselves serious expenses, did not solve the main task - the search for a forward striker. After the sale of Zé Luis and Luis Adriano, Spartak was left with one Ponce, who does not feel very comfortable as the only striker and has not scored a single goal in the national championship. Even less convincing in this position are Larsson and world champion Andre Schurrle, who are more accustomed to act on the flanks.
Dynamo also needed a driven striker, but as a result, the club paid € 20 million to Philip, who often plays in a guy. As a result, on the last day of the transfer window, the club had to hastily rent Igbun from Ufa, although the Nigerian was never famous for its high performance (the best indicator for the season was 9 goals scored).
The unexpected arrival of Novikov and the creature of Zorn from Germany
As a result, the head coaches, Oleg Kononov and Dmitry Khokhlov, became victims of global and not in all aspects of thoughtful perestroika. It is symbolic that both lost their jobs in early October before another pause for the matches of the national teams.
But in the future, clubs went their separate ways. Blue and white at least temporarily trusted the youth mentor Kirill Novikov. In Dynamo, apparently, they expect that under the leadership of a young specialist the team will be able to shoot, as was the case with Sergei Silkin, headed in 2011. Spartak also relied on a young coach, but on a foreigner - 34-year-old German Domenico Tedesco.
And both specialists began to boldly rebuild the team game. The German in a match with Rubin conducted a series of experiments. He decided to play a rhombus in the middle of the field with Thiel, who sometimes found himself in the position of the striker, and with Zelimkhan Bakaev in the midfield, and not on the flank. It was felt that the players had difficulty adjusting to the new requirements and did not fully understand what was required of them.
As a result, Spartak acted mainly on counterattacks, and the game ended in a goalless draw. At the same time, Tedesco made it clear that the team will continue to play “second number”, since Spartak is now not in that state ”in order to bet on the attack.
Novikov, too, first of all decided to work on defense and transferred Dynamo to a circuit with three central defenders. Blue and white had a decent game with Krasnodar and took points from one of the candidates for gold - 1: 1.
It is difficult to say how the career of young coaches in capital giants will develop, but one thing is clear: they are faced with the task of immediately improving the results of teams. Dynamo is at all in the relegation zone. And with the strong financial support of VTB, the departure from the RPL will be a real disaster for the blue and white. Therefore, the team needs to improve the results right here and now.
The position of Spartak is not so critical and it is hard to believe that the red-and-white can descend into the relegation zone, but only two points separate the team from the zone of butt matches. This can suit neither the leadership, nor the fans, nor Tedesco himself.
It seems that it can’t be worse anymore, and therefore it’s time for both Moscow teams to start climbing up. Moreover, expensive beginners must adapt and start to bring benefits sooner or later. Derby will be for Dynamo and Spartak, by the way, because the teams will have a special mood and desire to show that they are no worse than the opponents who are fighting for the championship, they just didn’t start the season for various reasons .
In addition, Tedesco and Novikov's wards should be helped by a difficult schedule of opponents.
Lack of replacements in CSKA and the epidemic of injuries in Lokomotiv
Both the railroad and the army team held heavy matches in European competitions this week, with the red-blue ones playing with Ferencvaros on Thursday, that is, they received only two days to recover.
At the same time, the staffing situation at CSKA is perhaps the most difficult of all applicants for medals. Victor Goncharenko is forced to manage an extremely modest clip of football players, and in the attack he can count only on Fedor Chalov. A serious load has already affected the results of the team. CSKA not only suffered three defeats in a row in the Europa League, but also lost to Rostov in the RPL, and then missed the victory in Ufa.
The Lokomotiv bench is much wider, but the railroad workers are faced with a serious epidemic of injuries. So, in a match with “Akhmat” the team could not be helped immediately by eight major players. And in the upcoming derby with Spartak, Yuri Semin will not be able to count on Anton Miranchuk, Fyodor Smolov, Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Luka Georgievich and Maciej Rybus. The rest will be extremely difficult after leaving for Turin.
Thus, both Spartak and Dynamo on Sunday will have an excellent opportunity to win the first victory in the RPL in six matches (even this is the performance of the teams this season is similar) and begin a new stage, pushing off the bottom.
Tournament Prospects
And success in derby may well be the starting point for a successful series of results. In the next rounds Spartak will have to take Arsenal and Wings of the Soviets, and the red-white is quite capable of scoring all six points in these two meetings. After that, the team will leave for Yekaterinburg to Ural, where Tedesco wards can also get hold of a victory.
In the event of a favorable development of events, Spartak can reduce the backlog from the top five, which currently stands at 11 points and seems almost unplayable. But to put an end to the European Cup prospects of Muscovites is still not worth it, the more teams from the top five have their own problems and will still necessarily fail.
In the last matches of the calendar year, the red and white will have the opportunity to personally slow down the Rostov and Zenit. But the defeat of the “Locomotive”, on the contrary, can further increase the lead over the top five, and in this case it will be too late to save the season.
The gap between Dynamo and the top 5 is much more serious, but a victory in the derby may open up good prospects for the blue and white, because in the next round the team will play with not brilliant results for Akhmat (at home) and Rubin (away) , and then take "Rostov." However, for Novikov’s wards, now every point is worth its weight in gold, and in the event of a defeat against CSKA, Dynamo can finally get bogged down in the relegation zone.