Hidden reserve: how Anton Miranchuk was transformed after his brother's departure to Atalanta

Over the past few weeks, Anton Miranchuk has become one of the brightest and most talked about Russian footballers.

First, the midfielder secured a foothold in Lokomotiv and tried on the role of a leader, and then won the place of the chief designer of attacks in the national team.

It is noteworthy that his successes coincided with the departure of his brother Alexei to Atalanta, although initially many assumed that this event could negatively affect the midfielder.

For Anton, the last season turned out to be extremely unsuccessful.

The footballer played only 19 matches in all tournaments, with four appearing on the field as a substitute and five times going to the bench during the meeting.

As a result, a total of 1291 minutes of playing time and four (3 + 1) points on the "goal + pass" system.

Yes, Miranchuk's performances were seriously affected by injuries, but it's difficult to call this the only cause of all troubles.

So, in the summer, the midfielder was in optimal shape, but lost the competition for a place in the base and only came out four times from the first minutes.

The beginning of the current championship also did not inspire optimism.

Miranchuk was unable to take part in the first round match due to disqualification, and in the next two he spent a total of 25 minutes on the field.

In the summer, Lokomotiv was left by João Mario and Jefferson Farfan, which theoretically should have helped Anton get to the start more often.

The same Portuguese played mainly in the positions of the left and central attacking midfielder, for which the Russian claimed.

However, only even more serious personnel losses of Lokomotiv helped Miranchuk fully return to the base.

In the match against Spartak, the railroad workers lost two key representatives of the middle line at once in the person of Alexey Miranchuk and Dmitry Barinov, as a result of which two vacancies appeared in the starting lineup.

Thus, if in the meeting with the red-and-white the appearance of Anton from the first minutes could be considered solely the result of a change of formation (Marko Nikolic unexpectedly decided to play with two clean forwards and four midfielders), then later the Serbian specialist had no choice but to trust talented midfielder.

Anton used his chance and immediately began to strengthen his status as the leader of the attack of Lokomotiv.

In the game against Akhmat, he scored the first goal of the season, played five key assists and received the highest rating among all players according to WhoScored.

Even in not the brightest matches with Zenit and Rostov, he looked pretty good, but Miranchuk's real benefit was the last three meetings in the RPL.

The midfielder chalked up three assists, each of which helped the room score the winning goals.

As a result, after ten rounds, Miranchuk is one of the leaders of the RPL by a number of indicators, which automatically makes him one of the best players in the first third of the season.

Thus, he ranks second in terms of both assists (3) and key passes on average per match (2.6).

In the first case, he is second only to Sebastian Shimanski from Dynamo, and in the second - to Wanderson from Krasnodar.

At the same time, in both ratings, he has equal indicators with Artyom Dzyuba, who in recent years is rightly considered one of the best assistants in the league.

Miranchuk also took the second position in terms of the number of expected broadcasts.

According to Understat, the Lokomotiv midfielder has an xA of 2.87 - more than Zelimkhan Bakaev from Spartak, Khvichi Kvaratskhelia from Rubin and the same Vanderson.

Dziuba is in the lead (3.03).

Anton's revival turned out to be extremely useful for Lokomotiv, but no less unexpected from this.

At first glance, the departure of Alexei's twin to Italy automatically gave him a chance to prove himself and win a place in the base, but many experts believed otherwise.

Much has been said in the press that the transfer of his brother to Atalanta may negatively affect his psychological state and, as a result, his performances.

It is all the more remarkable that initially very few people considered Anton Miranchuk as a full replacement for his brother.

The unsatisfactory results last season forced the experts, if not to write him off, then to doubt his abilities.

Thus, more and more calls were made to the management to purchase a replacement for the departed leader, and only a few believed that Lokomotiv already had a footballer at its disposal who could fully compensate for Alexei's absence.

As it turned out later, Anton not only became a key player in Lokomotiv, but also won a place in the starting lineup of the Russian national football team.

Of course, the reason for this was largely the injury of the leading performers in this position in the person of the same Alexei Miranchuk and Alexander Golovin, but this does not detract from the merits of the railroad midfielder.

Given that Stanislav Cherchesov was reluctant to trust both brothers and very rarely let them out from the first minutes, three consecutive hits in the base can be considered an achievement.

In the League of Nations meetings with Serbia and Hungary, Miranchuk only had 89 minutes in total to win the competition against Bakaev and strengthen his role as Dziuba's main partner in the attacking line.

As a result, two goals in the last four matches for the national team and a flattering comment from Cherchesov.

The mentor could not answer whether the midfielder is demonstrating his best football in his career, but expressed confidence that he was eager to follow his brother to Europe.

The main question is whether Anton is able to spend, if not the entire season, then at least two-thirds of it at such a high level.

At the moment, the most successful for him is the 2018/19 championship, according to the results of which 16 goals and three assists in all tournaments were listed in his track record.

If he manages to at least overcome the bar of ten points according to the "goal + pass" system, then his performance can be considered more than successful.

In addition, special attention will be focused on Miranchuk's actions in the Champions League, where Lokomotiv will desperately need his skills.

Yes, in the Russian championship, his influence on the team's game is enough for it to remain among the leaders and continue to fight for European cups.

But so far it is difficult to guess whether he is capable of leading the team in the main European Cup.

If everything goes well for Anton, then in the summer he may well follow his brother's example and go to one of the top championships of the Old World.

Suffice it to recall that Aleksey drew attention to himself precisely thanks to two goals against Juventus.