Inconvenient calendar, problems with the attack and mistakes in the defense: why Spartak really runs the risk of flying out of the RPL

Test in every match and lack of room for error

The standings of the championship of Russia in the current season is characterized by increased density. For example, only five points separate eighth from 15th. Quite unexpectedly in the company of teams at risk of flying out of the RPL, Spartak turned out to be. At the moment, red and white are at the distance of one victory from the zone of butt matches.

Despite the fact that it is hard to believe in the departure of the wards Domenico Tedesco, their potential fall in the FNL is quite real. Much will depend on how the team starts the spring part of the season. And in this regard, she was not too lucky with the calendar.

On February 29, Spartak will fight Dynamo in an away derby, and in a week it will be accepted for the medals and the Krasnodar Champions League, which will be denied the right to make mistakes. It is difficult to imagine how these matches will end for the red and white, but two defeats in them will not become a sensation, since the “people's team” will have to deal with at least equal opponents.

After Spartak will have to meet with Arsenal and Orenburg inferior in the class. But Muscovites will have to visit both teams, which does not bode well. Last year Spartak lost two times to the Orenburg club, and the defeat at the Otkrytie Arena was worth the work of Oleg Kononov. In Tula, the red-white team twice lost in the last three matches with a score of 0: 3.

In the future, Spartak will have to accept the unyielding Ufa and conduct an away derby from CSKA. In the final rounds of Tedesco's wards will be waiting for the “Locomotive”, the updated “Ruby” and the “Akhmat” and “Sochi” standing for relegation, which will need vital points.

So the loss of points is fraught for Spartak by waging an exhausting struggle for survival with unclear prospects, especially if we are talking about a series of misfires. In this case, pressure from the demanding army of fans will inevitably increase.

The pursuers are happy to take advantage of the failures of the grand. Moreover, there are no teams that are obviously leaving the Premier League this time. Even the Sochi last-runner was strengthened by Alexander Kokorin and world champion Adil Rami and intended to do everything to save himself. Not going to return to the FNL is another RPL newcomer Tambov, who, after changing his head coach, won a number of victories before the winter break.

Unconvincing Premier Cup victory and a couple of routs

The victory in the February Parimatch Premier Cup in Qatar should not be very encouraging for the fans of Spartak. In the end, a year ago, red and white also won it, but in the spring they looked not the best way.

This time the Tedesco team won two victories in three matches, but did not show football beyond the limits. In the first meeting, Spartak beat Rostov, but Valery Karpin’s wards at that time were clearly far from ideal form. In addition, the yellow and blue missed twice in the second half, when they included a lot of young people on the field.

Then Spartak lost to Lokomotiv in the penalty shootout and looked preferable only for half an hour. And “Partizan” lost the future triumphant at all - only the scandalous removal that completely broke the game to the Serbian vice champion helped turn the tide of the meeting.

Then, after the tournament in Qatar, there were victories over the inferior in the class “Ararat” and “Pakhtakor” with a total score of 7: 1, which did not give a clear answer about the team’s readiness to resume the season.

Counterattack and Sobolev adaptation issues

Last winter, Tedesco was given the opportunity to instill Spartak in his game. The German, obviously, counts on counterattacks with a large number of vertical gears. In the center of defense, the same bet was made on the Samuel Gigot trio - Ilya Kutepov - George Dzhikia.

However, the loud trinity in the offseason regularly made mistakes. What is even worth the breakthrough of Lokomotiv defender Vladislav Ignatiev in the penalty box, red and white, who sowed panic in the defensive ranks, and rude blots in the game with Partizan. Fans can only hope that in March Zhigot, Kutepov and Dzhikiya will finally feel like a single whole, because there is no certainty about it yet.

The team ahead, given the counterattack style, is likely to bet on Alexander Sobolev, who is able to competently cling to the ball. But it’s not at all a fact that the young striker will reveal himself in Spartak. After all, it is one thing to be the first star in “Wings of the Soviets”, and another to lead a team like “Spartak”, when the fans require you to exploit in every match.

Moreover, Sobolev was quickly studied and found an “antidote” against him. If in the first 12 rounds he excelled ten times, then in the next seven - not a single one. In them, Alexander did not score points for performance at all. And in Spartak Sobolev has yet to play with partners. At the same time, it is worth remembering that Aleksadr was not in an established team, but in an unstable team undergoing restructuring.

Yes, and Spartak’s bet on the second number game may not work in most matches. So far, the best game under Tedesco’s leadership was played by the red and white in October with Lokomotiv (3-0). Then the team literally tore the opponent in counterattacks.

But opponents who are inferior in the class will not be revealed like that. They themselves will be located near their own penalty box and will wait for an error on the part of the Spartacists. And in these meetings Tedesco will need “Plan B”, but not at all for the fact that he has one. The coach persistently instills in the team one scheme, and the victim of this process, for example, was the most expensive player in the history of the club, Guus Til, who simply does not have a place in the current arrangement.

At the same time, some positions still remain vulnerable, for example, a support zone. Last year, Spartak noticeably lacked a “chain dog” in midfield. In winter, he never appeared on the team, and Alex Kral, Nail Umyarov and Roman Zobnin, not to mention Til, are not drawn to this role. This means that the red-white can again begin to have serious problems during the counterattacks of the opponents.