Questions about the rosters, the opposition of the flanks and the pressure on the goalkeepers: what is interesting about the RPL Spartak - Zenit match

Will Kutepov play and in what position

The confrontation between Spartak and the former forward of the team Artem Dziuba always arouses particular interest among the fans.

In matches with the red-and-white team, the captain of the Russian national team demonstrates an extreme attitude and often helps his team to succeed.

Despite the fact that the striker scored only once in the last seven face-to-face meetings (in the July semi-final of the Russian Cup.

), Zenit won four meetings against the principal rival, and drew two more.

Moreover, it is interesting that Dziuba played in that match when the Petersburgers patted their defeat in Moscow, only 25 minutes, coming on as a substitute with the score 1: 2.

In September, the forward scored an excellent move and scored five goals in three rounds of the RPL.

In the last fight with Ufa, he scored a hat-trick.

In this regard, it is curious how Spartak is going to restrain a powerful footballer.

The main intrigue is who will take a place in the top three central defenders of the capital's team on the right.

After a pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pavel Maslov, who for a long time was the company of Samuel Zhigot and Georgy Dzhikia, settled in this position.

However, in the match with Rubin, the 20-year-old defender of the Russian youth team received a red card and missed the next meeting with Tambov.

But Ilya Kutepov, who did not enjoy the confidence of Domenico Tedesco, twice appeared in the starting lineup of the red and white and looked as reliable as possible.

True, in Saransk, the 2018 World Cup participant was replaced in the 53rd minute, but this is more likely due to his yellow card.

In any case, a few days later, Ilya received a call to the national team from Stanislav Cherchesov.

It would be logical if in an important match the coaching staff of "Spartak" will make a choice in favor of a more experienced footballer, and not a young Maslov.

Moreover, the mistakes of Pavel and 22-year-old Ilya Gaponov partly influenced the outcome of the cup derby.

At the same time, the question remains, which position in the defense line can Kutepov play - right, as in the match against Tambov, or in the center, as in the meeting with Rubin.

It is possible that Tedesco will choose the latter option.

In this case, a tall (193 cm) tenacious football player will have the opportunity to insure partners, and Samuel Gigot will more often join attacks.   

Will Lovren, Malkom and Azmun enter the field

Talking about Dziuba's mood for matches with the former team, we deliberately did not mention Serdar Azmun, who scored the same number of goals as Artyom last season - 17. The problem is that the Iranian will most likely not take part in the derby.

The striker was injured at the end of the match with Ufa and left the field in an electric car.

In addition to him, due to various injuries, Dejan Lovren and Malcolm were asked to replace.

Back on Thursday, all three did not train in the general group.

The easiest way for the mentor to replace Lovren.

Douglas will habitually take a place in the center of defense, who has already played three matches in this position this season: with CSKA (2: 1), Arsenal (3: 1) and Ural (1: 1).

In all these meetings "Zenith" necessarily conceded, although the Brazilian was not directly to blame for the conceded goals.

However, in the confrontation with the fast high-class strikers of "Spartak" acting in a non-native position, Douglas will have much more difficult. 

On the left flank of the defense, the Brazilian will be replaced by either Yuri Zhirkov or Daniil Krugovoy.

The colossal experience speaks for the first, for the second - efficiency and endurance.

However, in the most important matches with CSKA and Lokomotiv, and even with the same Spartak in the Cup, it was the veteran who got the main place.

And the bronze medalist of Euro 2008 acted in these games as useful as possible.

Moreover, the duels with Spartak are traditionally successful for him.

In 26 matches with the red and white in the composition of different teams, he scored three goals and gave six assists.

You can recall his most beautiful winning goal at the Otkritie Arena in 2019. 

It will be much more difficult to replace Azmun, because Semak, apart from the Iranian and Dziuba, simply does not have nominal strikers.

The hammering duo has broken up only once this season.

In the game against Rostov, the captain of the Russian national team was unable to enter the field due to injury.

His place was taken by Emiliano Rigoni.

This situation is likely to repeat itself in Moscow.

The Argentinean, like Azmun, knows how to competently break into free zones and play along with it. 

It will be more difficult to replace Malcolm, because he did not miss a single match in the new season, but, most likely, Alexey Sutormin, for whom the position of the right midfielder is native, will do it.

However, the coaching staff of the guests can take advantage of the universalism of Alexander Erokhin or Andrey Mostovoy.

Both are accustomed to acting from the left, but may well move to the opposite flank. 

Whom Tedesco will dispatch to attack 

If Semak is experiencing serious problems with the strikers, then Tedesco, on the contrary, has a rich selection of forwards.

In the derby of the two capitals, any of the trio can enter the field: Alexander Sobolev, Jordan Larsson and Ezequiel Ponce.

But Alexander Kokorin will not play against his former team for health reasons.

According to the coach of the red-and-white, the former Zenit footballer will undergo treatment for the next two weeks.

Almost certainly, from the first minutes, a Swede will appear on the field, who in the current RPL season is the team leader in terms of the number of points for performance and its top scorer (4 + 2).

He hit the base in all matches of the national championship.

The intrigue is who will pair him.

The Argentinian puts pressure on the opponent's defenders quite well and is able to maintain a decent speed throughout the match, which can be useful in the second half, when the teams start to get tired.

In addition, he does not forget about his direct duties, acting equally well from the depths and on the edge.

However, if the team is faced with the task of relying on the standards and acting more as the second number, as it happened in the game for the Cup, it would be more logical to exit from the first minutes of the Russian, who is the leader in the RPL in terms of the number of horse martial arts won (on average 5.8 per match) ...

How Semak is going to solve the problem of Ayrton and Zobnin

Spartak's flanks also look extremely powerful.

So, according to the Whoscored portal, left-back Ayrton is the best footballer of the team with a score of 7.39.

Roman Zobnin, acting on the right edge, is in the top five (7.14).

Both do a huge amount of work, having time to close the entire edge and regularly join attacks.

Moreover, Zobnin is even the best footballer of the team in terms of the number of key passes (1.9).

The novel, forced to move to the flank, looks so organic in this position that Tedesco would rather think about buying a new central midfielder than a lateral.

Ayrton, contrary to popular belief, after the trademark high-speed passes regularly works out in defense.

For example, he is ranked fourth in the league in average tackles (2.9).

In the derby, the fans will witness a curious duel between the Brazilian and Vyacheslav Karavaemy.

The pupil of CSKA is gradually settling into Zenit and in the current season of the RPL has already made two assists.

Ayrton, on the other hand, should be given wings by a double in the previous round match against Tambov.

But on the opposite edge, due to Lovren's injury and Douglas's move to the center of defense, two partners in the Russian national team, Zhirkov and Zobnin, may meet and, given the efficiency of the second, it is possible that Semak will have to spend one of the replacements to strengthen the left flank.

Will Maksimenko and Kerzhakov cope with the pressure

Special attention on Saturday will be focused on Alexander Maksimenko.

This is largely due to the effective mistake he made in the derby with CSKA three weeks ago (1: 3).

Considering that she was not the first for him, and in the June duel with the army team, the young goalkeeper missed an optional ball from Nikola Vlašić, he will be under special pressure.

Surely, Alexander did not add positive emotions to the children's video with his participation, which was distributed on Telegram channels, in which he admitted that he dreams of playing for CSKA.

All this can additionally irritate the “first issue” of “Spartak”.

However, in the matches with Zenit, Maksimenko did not make any effective mistakes, and even played his first meeting with Petersburgers in September 2018 with zero.

This match will be especially important for Mikhail Kerzhakov.

This is due to the return of Andrey Lunev to duty after injury.

On the eve of the derby, the latter started training.

However, the 41st number of "Zenith" is hardly eager to sit down again in the reserve, all the more he used the opportunity presented again and conceded only five goals in nine matches of this season.    

Will Bakaev and Malkom emerge from the shadows

Much in Saturday's match will depend on Zelimkhan Bakayev's play.

Despite the fact that the midfielder has not yet gotten into perfect shape and is not showing the game that he showed last season, he has already scored four points (1 + 3).

And in the cup match with Zenit it was Zelimkhan who gave an assist to Sobolev.

Against the background of Bakaev, it will be curious to observe the actions of Malcolm, if he still recovers from his injury.

The Brazilian's game at the start of the season raises big questions among Zenit fans.

The midfielder, acquired from Barcelona for € 40 million, has scored only one goal (in the match against Tambov) and one assist (in the game against Arsenal).

At the same time, in the most important matches with Rostov, Lokomotiv, CSKA and Dynamo, he did not gain effective points.

At the end of last season, recovering from injury, Malcolm seemed to have adapted to the team and began to benefit them.

The Brazilian scored a brace in the match against CSKA, upset Sochi, helped Daler Kuzyaev score the winning goal against Spartak and earned the decisive penalty in the Russian Cup final against Khimki.

After a short pause, the expensive legionnaire's business again did not go well.

He is the best in the team in terms of the number of strokes (3.1 on average per match) and in terms of the number of strokes (2.2), but these indicators are rarely converted into specifics.

It remains to be hoped that Malcolm will begin to justify the money spent on him on Saturday.