A stalemate: European competitions during a pandemic revealed the main problems of the RPL

Russian clubs started the European campaign extremely unsuccessfully in the 2020/21 season.

In the opening rounds of the Champions League and Europa League, they did not win a single victory and scored a total of four points for four.

Half of them fell on the share of CSKA Moscow, but this can hardly be considered a serious achievement.

After all, the army team was opposed not by Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Dortmund Borussia, but modest by continental standards, Wolfsberg and Zagreb Dynamo.

All this has once again illustrated the presence of serious problems in domestic football, which have become especially noticeable in the context of a pandemic.

Of course, the main problem of Russian teams is the general level of their players.

It seems that at the moment it is not high enough not only to fight on equal terms for a place in the Champions League playoffs, but also to seriously count on the third place in the group and the subsequent exit to the 1/16 finals of the Europa League.

Zenit have already suffered a home defeat against the nominal outsider of the quartet - Brugge, while Lokomotiv and Krasnodar barely took points from Salzburg and Rennes, respectively.

Of course, these clubs are not whipping boys, but over the past year and a half they have lost a number of leaders.

The Austrians parted with Erling Holland, Takumi Minamino, Munas Dabbur and others, and the French sent Ismail Sarr, Edouard Mendy and Rafinho to conquer the Premier League.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the lack of quality performers is also manifested in the RPL.

The tight calendar does not make it possible to play with the starting lineup in both tournaments, and the substitutes are much inferior in level to the representatives of the base.

As a result, the leaders of Russian football not only fail to achieve significant success in the European arena, but also lose precious points in the domestic championship.

In the last two rounds, the Champions League participants from Russia have suffered a total of five defeats.

Lokomotiv lost to Rotor and Sochi, Krasnodar lost to Spartak and Akhmat, and only Zenit managed to partially rehabilitate itself for the failure in the confrontation with Rubin.

Sergei Semak's wards on a visit took the upper hand over Khimki.

However, the meeting turned out to be quite tense, and the blue-white-blue could well lose to an outsider.

In this regard, CSKA stands apart.

The team of Viktor Goncharenko may not have won a single victory in the Europa League, but it looks more preferable on the home arena.

In the 12th round, the red-blues defeated Arsenal (5: 1), and in the 13th they took over Rotor (1: 0).

Nevertheless, the loss of points in the confrontation with not the most serious opponents in the Europa League suggests that the army team still has similar problems with competitors in the Russian championship.

Apparently, the main reason for the failures of Russian teams is fatigue.

Unlike representatives of other countries, they practically did not rest between the championships and have already managed to play almost half of the matches of the RPL season.

Such a tight schedule could not but affect the condition of the players.

By the beginning of November, many of them were emasculated, which is especially evident against the background of European colleagues.

Yes, the crisis has not spared even such strong clubs as Manchester United and Manchester City.

Both failed to start the season in the Premier League and have already lost 18 points for two.

But the difference is that there is no end in sight to the decline of the Russian giants, while the wards of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Josep Guardiola are only gaining momentum.

This is confirmed by their recent results in the main European Cup, where some defeated Leipzig (5: 0), while others left no chances for Marseille (3: 0).

Of course, the current season is unique.

The pandemic and the postponement of the European Championship have made the schedule extremely tight and left the Russian teams not only without rest, but also without pre-season training.

In many ways, the decision to hold as many tours as possible in anticipation of the winter break is due precisely to the desire to help the national team better prepare for Euro 2020, but in this regard, apparently, it was worth trying to find a middle ground.

By and large, RPL clubs found themselves in the most difficult situation in comparison with other participants in the Champions League.

Apart from Zenit, Lokomotiv and Krasnodar, only three teams were forced to first end the previous season in the summer, and then in August to start playing this one.

These include Dynamo Kiev, Shakhtar and Ferencvaros.

The only difference is that the Ukrainian and Hungarian teams had a pause between the competitions for much more than two and a half weeks that the Russian clubs had.

The Ukrainians went on vacation on July 19 and returned to the field on August 21, while the Hungarians had a 49-day break (from June 27 to August 14).

In these conditions, many people doubt the need for two friendly matches with the participation of the Russian national team.

And this is in addition to six games in the League of Nations.

In any other year, such a decision would hardly have raised questions, but in the fall of 2020, the players already regularly play two days later on the third, and meetings with Sweden and Moldova only increase the load on athletes.

In theory, such a crisis could have been avoided if RPL clubs had better rosters and had the opportunity to conduct relatively painless rotation.

However, under the current conditions, this is hardly possible, because even the grandees do not have a long bench and are forced to rely on a cage of 14-15 players.

All this returns to the question of the advisability of the existence of a limit on legionnaires in the RPL.

Now restrictions do not allow Russian clubs to staff the squad with the necessary number of high-class foreigners, and high-quality Russian footballers are still in short supply.

Thus, the heads of the clubs are forced to patch holes with not the most skilled domestic performers, which not only reduces the level of competition, but also partly provokes inflation of salaries.

Yes, many are worried by the fact that if the limit is canceled, Russian footballers will no longer be included in the squad, which will affect the results of the national team.

But earlier this did not prevent players of such a level from appearing as Andrei Arshavin, Igor Akinfeev, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Yuri Zhirkov and many others.

Each of them began their careers at a time when artificial restraints did not exist, and were forced to compete on equal terms with competitors.

Perhaps this is what helped them rise to such a high level and become the leaders of the national team for many years.

In this regard, one can understand Sergei Semak, who has repeatedly spoken out in favor of canceling the limit on foreign players in the RPL.

Unlike many other teams, "Zenith" has the necessary means to invite expensive and star foreigners.

In the case of building a high-quality team, the country could have at least one representative who has real chances, if not to get into the decisive stages of European competitions, then at least to reach the Champions League playoffs.

Without a doubt, concerns are raised by the fact that the abolition of the limit could lead to an increase in the gap between leaders and outsiders in the national championship.

But in reality this is not entirely correct.

Now the difference in class is due not only to the financial capabilities of competitors, but also to the shortage of high-quality Russians.

The giants are interested in attracting them and do not skimp on transfers, while the middle peasants are forced to put less classy domestic players in their place.

If the restriction was lifted, "small" clubs could strengthen their roster by purchasing not the most expensive, but more skilled legionnaires.