Orenburg's leadership, Torpedo's problems, Chertanov's regression and two outbreaks of COVID-19: what did the start of the season in the FNL remember

Confident start of "Orenburg"

Often in the FNL, from the very first rounds, a clear favorite stands out, who sets himself the task of raising the class and confidently gains points.

The current season was no exception.

After ten matches, with a margin of four points from the closest pursuer, Orenburg, which took off from the RPL, is in the lead.

At the end of August, the sports director of the club, Dmitry Andreev, said that the team has a goal to win all 42 meetings.

The team, however, has already made two mistakes, having played a draw with Tekstilshchik and Akron.

The unexpected coaching castling did not prevent the leader.

Orenburg started the season under the leadership of Ilshat Aitkulov, then he was replaced by Marcel Lichka.

Before coming to Russia, the young Czech specialist headed only Dynamo Brest, but managed to lead the team to the first championship in the club's history.

Despite this, the contract with him was not renewed.

Now Lichka will try to return Orenburg to the RPL.   

In turn, the club's management carried out a competent transfer campaign and found a replacement for the leaders who had left the team.

The team was joined by experienced Denis Tkachuk, Andrey Kozlov and Sergey Breev.

And three young footballers were rented from Ural: Islamzhan Nasyrov, Artyom Mamin and Artyom Yusupov.

Restructuring "Wings of the Soviets"

It was much more difficult to start in the FNL for another team that left the RPL - Krylyam Sovetov.

Like Orenburg, Samara lost half of their roster, but in addition were left without head coach Andrei Talalaev, who headed Akhmat.

His place was taken by the ex-mentor of "Chertanovo" Igor Osinkin.

Together with him, seven players moved from the Moscow team to Krylia.

One of them, Danil Prutsev, a month later moved to Sochi for € 900 thousand, despite the fact that Samara residents bought it for € 300 thousand.

It took Osinkin and the new charges six rounds to grind in, in which the Samara club scored only seven points.

Then the team won four victories in a row with a total score of 10: 0 and currently shares the third place with Nizhny Novgorod.

The main star of the team remains Anton Zinkovsky, who, despite the departure of Krylia from the RPL, did not leave Samara.

In ten games he has four goals and three assists.  

Increased density and takeoff of newbies

If Orenburg tries to stake out the first place long before the finish of the tournament, then the fight for the second line, as well as getting into the joint zone, will probably go on until the last matches.

After ten rounds, it is difficult to predict which teams will be able to end up in the top four.

For example, Torpedo, which had been in the lead for most of the previous season, did not start well and won the first victory only in the fourth round.

Failures led to a new conflict between head coach Sergei Ignashevich and the fans, however, the owner of the club, Roman Avdeev, said that the specialist would remain at his post.

After that, the team straightened out its position and is now in the middle of the standings.

But "Chertanovo", which recently applied for an increase in class, after the departure of a number of leaders, is located in the relegation zone.

The intermediate fifth line is occupied by the newcomer of the FNL "Veles".

Another team that has risen from the PFL, Alania, is only one point behind him.

Finally, tenth is Tekstilshchik, who finished last season in the relegation zone.

At the same time, the Ivanovo team is only three points away from the third or fourth places.

Dynamo-Bryansk, Torpedo, Chaika, Krasnodar-2 and Yenisei are located at a distance of one or two points from Tekstilshchik.

Thus, just a couple of victories allow almost any team to improve their standings, just like a couple of misfires - to significantly worsen it.

Second place "Spartak-2" and the new star of "Krasnodar-2"

But on the second line, and with an advantage of three points from the nearest pursuers, "Spartak-2" unexpectedly settled down.

In recent years, the red-and-white farm club did not perform very well and did not rise above the 14th place in the FNL.

The team's coaches complained about the lack of players, and the fans complained that the team did not supply the staff for the base.

However, with the arrival of Roman Pilipchuk to Spartak-2, the results improved dramatically.

In ten matches, the Muscovites have won seven victories with one draw and two defeats.

Also, the red-and-white farm with 18 goals is the most productive squad of the FNL.

And most importantly, young stars began to appear in the team again.

For example, 18-year-old midfielder Stepan Hovhannisyan scored seven points for performance in nine matches (4 + 3).

17-year-old striker Vladislav Shitov scored a double in his debut meeting in the FNL.

In total, eight players made their debut in the team this season.

However, the backbone of the team is still more experienced performers: Mikhail Ignatov, Malcolm Badu and veteran Vitaly Dyakov.

Another farm club - Krasnodar-2 - is performing worse so far and with 14 points shares 14-15 places with Enisey.

However, Southerner fans can also rejoice in the progress of young footballers, such as 20-year-old attacking midfielder Eduard Spertsyan, who leads the FNL scorer race with seven goals.

The development of the player did not go unnoticed by Murad Musaev, and in the match with Khimki (7: 2) Eduard made his debut in the Premier League.

But another supplier of young footballers for the teams of RPL "Chertanovo" in the new season is experiencing serious problems.

They are connected with the change of the head coach and the departure of seven leading players at once.

Instead of Osinkin, the "devils" were headed by Denis Pervushin, who had no choice but to include even younger performers in the group.

Among them was 15-year-old Sergei Pinyaev, who gave two assists in the first three games and scored one goal.

At first, young "Chertanovo" scored points on emotions and even won two victories, but they were followed by an unsuccessful series of seven defeats in a row, in which the team did not score a single goal.

After ten rounds, Muscovites with six points are only in 20th place.

And Pinyaev in the last three games did not get into the application at all.

Tom is also in the relegation zone, having played a lot in the RPL at one time.

The Siberians failed to start the new season.

Under the leadership of Vasily Baskakov, they scored only two points.

In early September, the coach was dismissed.

His place can be taken by 37-year-old Alexander Kerzhakov, who currently heads one of the youth teams of Russia.

The young specialist has already admitted that he had communicated with the management of "Tom".

At the same time, he had not worked at the club level before.

But Kerzhakov's arrival in Tomsk will certainly add attention to the league.

Also, the Siberians, in order to rectify the situation, made two transfers, notable by the standards of the FNL.

The team was joined by an experienced defender Vitaly Denisov, who twice became the champion of Russia, as well as "Russian Messi" Denis Davydov, who played for Spartak and even played one match for the national team.

Technical defeats of Dynamo Bryansk and quarantine in Yenisei

In conclusion, it is necessary to mention the epidemiological situation in the league.

In the FNL in September, two outbreaks of COVID-19 were recorded.

To begin with, Dynamo Bryansk was forced to quarantine.

As a result, the team missed three matches (with "Spartak-2", "Neftekhimik" and "Alania"), in which they were credited with technical defeats.  

Later, several Yenisei players passed positive tests for coronavirus.

In this regard, the Krasnoyarsk citizens were unable to take part in the match of the 10th round of the FNL with "Torpedo".

However, the head coach of the team, Alexander Tarkhanov, complained that in different regions they treat the disease differently. 

“When they played in Astrakhan, they had four people who were sick with coronavirus, but the team entered the football field and played with us,” the expert said in an interview with the club's press service.

In general, the situation in the FNL remains unpredictable, and no team is immune from the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent technical defeats.