In the shadow of the captain: why the superiority of Dziuba in Russian football makes you think

Game transformation, 39 points for performance and nine goals for the national team

The determination of the best Russian football player according to the results of the past year hardly harbored intrigue. The overwhelming majority of fans, journalists, coaches and functionaries voted for Zenit striker Artyom Dziube. If you look exclusively at the statistics, then the 2019th turned out to be more successful for the captain of the Russian team than 2018. At the club level, he scored 16 goals and gave 23 assists.

In addition, the striker did without recessions. He looked equally bright both in the spring and in the first part of the new season. At first, Dziuba could not score in the RPL for a long time, and his “dry” series in the national championship lasted for six months (with a break for the winter holidays. - RT ), but, in the end, it was he who scored a double in the April match with Krasnodar, which became for Zenit virtually gold. At the age of 30, the striker himself took the gold of the Russian championship for the first time and became the best assistant to the RPL.

The game transformation of Dziuba is also worthy of respect. With the arrival of Serdar Azmun at Zenit, he no longer went to the forefront alone, and began to act more in the game and help partners score. As a result, the striker opened up from a new perspective, he proved himself to be a cool handler.

The lack of healthy egoism in Artyom, usually inherent in the attackers, and an excellent vision of the field helped painlessly join the team of Azmun. In less than a year, the Iranian striker scored 34 points for performance in all games for Petersburgers (23 + 11). Moreover, in ten cases, it was the pupil of Spartak who assisted him.

Dziuba also spent a magnificent year in the Russian team. The captain managed to score nine goals and help the national team break into the final part of Euro 2020. Someone will say that he upset extremely weak opponents, for example, poker in a match with San Marino. On the other hand, Dziuba sent a third of his goals into the net of strong Scotland. And Artyom assisted partners regularly. On his account six assists.

Summing up, Artyom did not reduce his demands on himself throughout the year and managed to reveal himself in a new way in the fourth ten. He remained the leader in the club and the national team and helped partners open up. In addition, Dziuba enjoys great love from fans and in every possible way contributes to the popularization of football in the country.

Adaptation of Golovin and Cheryshev, instability of Chalov and Miranchuk

However, there are negative aspects in the dominance of the captain of the team. If you look closely, he only once said his weighty word in significant matches with top rivals in European competitions, the national championship, the Russian Super Cup and games with the Belgian national team in the selection for the Euro.

In addition, he had practically no competitors in 2019. No one has made such significant progress in a year that they talked about him no less often than about Dziuba. At the same time, the very hero of the 2018 World Cup turned 31 in August.

The first Russian legionnaire Alexander Golovin spent the first season adapting to Monaco, in addition, he almost flew out of League 1. Denis Cheryshev won the Spanish Cup with Valencia and made it to the Champions League playoffs, but as usual suffered from injuries. Due to damage, the midfielder missed the ending of last season and almost the whole of November. In total, he failed to help the club in 17 matches in all tournaments.

In the RPL, no one could really express themselves clearly from the Russians either. Fyodor Chalov became the top scorer in the national championship and nearly went to Crystal Palace in the summer, but scores infrequently in the new season. He has only five goals, this is less than that of Grzegorz Kryhovyak, Evgeni Lutsenko and George Despotovich. The striker, although rapidly growing up, remains an unstable young footballer, in whose game a lot depends on his mood. Perhaps that is why Stanislav Cherchesov does not call him to the national team.

Lack of stability and Alexei Miranchuk. Although he and his brother made tremendous progress during the course of the year. After the departure of Manuel Fernandes, both became leaders of Lokomotiv and helped the team win the Russian Cup and Super Cup. Alexey also showed himself brightly in the Champions League, twice upsetting Juventus. It is hoped that in the near future he will nevertheless leave for Europe and continue to develop.

RPL defensive mentality and damage from the limit

It’s worth waiting for a raise from other talented young Russians, especially since there have been a lot of them in the RPL over the past year. But the Premier League is far from the best tournament for the manifestation of their personality. The domestic championship is maximally tailored to the result, and many Russian teams act strictly from the defense.

Unfortunately, this leads to the fact that there are less and less bright original football players in the RPL, and players such as Alan Dzagoev are piece goods. And the main protagonists of the championship, as a rule, are not the Russians, but the legionnaires. This trend was especially pronounced at the beginning and middle of the decade, when clubs could afford to spend serious money on quality foreigners.

Then the weather in the championship was determined by such masters as the Hulk, Miguel Danny, Axel Witsel, Seydoux Doumbia, Lassana Diarra, Mbark Bussufa, Quincy Promes, Samuel Eto'o and many others. Russians often played supporting roles in all leading teams. Often, under the "limiters" guaranteed to be given the position of goalkeeper and extreme defenders.

Now, with the changing financial situation of clubs, such high-quality foreign players come to Russia less often, but still foreigners find themselves in Russia in the first roles, like the same Azmun and Nikola Vlašić. That is, we are talking about systemically important attacking football players.

The Russians are not ready to come to the fore. In addition, the limit on legionnaires kills them motivation, because they are guaranteed to receive their playing time thanks to the right passport. And with the new limit, the situation can only get worse. Therefore, it remains to be hoped that the best Russian players will leave for Europe in order to progress naturally, and not pickle in the RPL. Then the fans will be able to pay attention not only to Dziuba.