Longing for family or a hint to the management: why Tedesco announced his departure from Spartak after the match with Zenit

The central match of the 19th round of the RPL between Zenit and Spartak was initially remembered for the dominance of blue-white-blue, which was reflected not only in the final score (3: 1), but also in the colossal difference in the number of shots on goal (27 -5).

However, the statistics faded into the background when the head coach of the red and white Domenico Tedesco announced at a post-match press conference that he did not intend to renew his contract with the club.

During a conversation with reporters, he admitted that he is very hard going through separation from his family, which has become even more painful in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, Tedesco did not say anything about his desire to prematurely terminate the contract with Spartak, which expires at the end of the season.

And he explained the decision to announce his plans in advance by the desire to give the club time to find a new mentor.

The specialist's statement shocked both Spartak fans and representatives of the football community.

After the autumn part of the tournament, the red and whites remain one of the main contenders for medals.

Yes, the gap from Zenit in the fight for the championship has grown to six points, but it can hardly be called critical.

However, Tedesco's decision makes the position of the capital's team quite vulnerable.

It is hard to imagine that Spartak players will be able to remain extremely motivated, knowing that their mentor will leave the team at the end of the 2020/21 season.

Of course, most players will continue to perform their duties professionally, but they are unlikely to have an incentive to work beyond measure and prove their professional suitability before a new specialist arrives.

After all, Tedesco's replacement may prefer a different scheme or preach a different style of play.

Over the past ten years, football experts have repeatedly announced their decision to leave the club in advance, and this has rarely had a positive impact on the teams.

Suffice it to recall the examples of Josep Guardiola and André Villas-Boas, who in the fall of 2015 announced their refusal to renew their contracts with Bayern Munich and Zenit, respectively.

As a result, the Munich team won the championship and the German Cup, but lost to Atlético in the Champions League semifinals.

And although the Petersburgers reached the playoffs of the main European Cup, they finished third in the RPL and qualified only for the Europa League next year.

Another significant episode took place at Barcelona last season.

After the resignation of Ernesto Valverde, the team was headed by Kike Setien, but did not succeed and left the club in the summer.

In many ways, the reason was that the Spaniard was initially considered by many to be a "temporary worker" and behaved accordingly - he went to experiments with great apprehension and was afraid of offending the team leaders in any way.

Suffice it to recall that the mentor did not consider himself authoritative enough to remove Lionel Messi from the field.

As a result, the Catalans failed the competition year and were left without trophies.

In the Spanish Championship, they finished second, behind Real Madrid, and in the Champions League quarterfinals they suffered a humiliating defeat to Bayern with a score of 2: 8.

Thus, keeping Tedesco as head coach until the end of the championship is unlikely to bring dividends to Spartak.

To a certain extent, a demotivated team runs the risk of failing the rest of this season, and a new mentor - to get a minimum of time to prepare for the upcoming championship.

Do not forget that the European Championship is planned for the summer of 2021, which is why there will be practically no time left for training.

Returning to the very decision of Tedesco, questions are raised by what was announced about him after such a sensitive defeat from a direct competitor.

On the one hand, everything looks pretty logical.

The meeting with Zenit was the last for Spartak in 2020, and there is no better time to take stock of the year.

But at the same time, this match clearly indicated the presence of serious problems in the team, which can only be solved by the club's management.

Therefore, it seems that the moment for such words was not chosen by chance.

Of course, it is very difficult to question Tedesco's arguments, because earlier the desire to be closer to the family almost forced the defender Samuel Gigot to leave the club.

However, it should not be excluded that in such a radical way the German is trying to draw the attention of the management to the personnel problems of the team and demand that it strengthen the composition.

Perhaps that is why he did not resign, but left the Spartak bosses time to correct the situation.

The match with Zenit clearly showed that it is very difficult for Spartak to compete with an opponent in the personnel section.

The starting line-up of the red and whites is noticeably inferior in terms of the level of performers and does not have stars of the caliber of Artem Dziuba, Serdar Azmun, Malcolm, Wilmar Barrios and Douglas Santos.

But at the same time, Muscovites cannot boast of a wide range of players, which is why they are practically unable to strengthen the game during the meeting.

This was especially noticeable in St. Petersburg, when two nominal defenders left the bench - Ilya Kutepov and Ilya Gaponov.

Even though the first was assigned to the attacking line and even had a good chance to excel, all this speaks of an extremely poor choice of players.

For comparison, Semak, during the match, released two representatives of the main composition of the Russian national team - Yuri Zhirkov and Daler Kuzyaev, as well as a reserve player of the national team - Alexander Erokhin.

Also on the field appeared Sebastian Driussi, who, although he performs in an uncomfortable position for himself, is able to give freshness and sharpness to the attack of the Petersburgers.

On the Transfermarkt portal, his cost is estimated at € 12 million, which makes him the sixth most expensive player in Zenit.

For comparison, in "Spartak" on this indicator, he would share the first line with Roman Zobnin.

Yes, in the derby of the two capitals "Spartak" could not count on three players.

Center-forwards Alexander Sobolev and Alexander Kokorin, as well as talented winger Maxim Glushenkov, did not fly to St. Petersburg due to injuries.

But in the case of their presence, the difference in class and depth of the composition was more than impressive, which has been repeatedly confirmed in recent years.

It is worth noting that despite the confidence of the club, the Spartak management practically did not provide their coach with serious support in the form of transfers.

The actual gain was perhaps the purchase of Sobolev from Krylia Sovetov.

Nigerian Victor Moses' loan from Chelsea is hardly a big success, as he was not even in the top 5 right-backs.

Kokorin became one of the highest paid players in the club, but so far he has not pleased with his performance, and Oston Urunov has failed to meet expectations.

The question is also whether Tedesco needed all of the above players.

Urunov is clearly a creature of the already former general director Shamil Gazizov, and his purchase could well not meet the requirements of a specialist.

The same may apply to Kokorin, whose invitation was unlikely to be an essential task in the presence of Jordan Larsson and Ezequiel Ponce.

Taking into account the fact that Domenico tried Alexander several times in the role of the tenth number, he needed a performer of this role, and not a pure striker, even if he was able to connect from the depths.

In addition to the playmaker, Spartak clearly lacks midfielders and high-quality defensive midfielders capable of diversifying the attack.

Zobnin, Alex Kral and Nail Umyarov more fit the definition of "box-to-box".

By and large, none of them have the skills of a high-quality attack destroyer, which is so necessary for red and white.

In the game against Zenit, this was especially noticeable, because it was from the rebound zone that two balls flew into Alexander Maksimenko's goal, and the number of dangerous moments was off the charts.

It is worth recalling that this issue of the red and white was discussed back in the summer of 2019.

Then there were many rumors about the possible invitation of Adrien Tamez, Ibrahima Sissoko and Boubakari Sumare, but none of the transfers was possible.

First, Oleg Kononov, and then Tedesco were left without strengthening the most important position, which could not but affect the results.

In this regard, it can be assumed that the next few weeks will be indicative in terms of Tedesco's prospects at Spartak.

If the German seriously intends to leave the club, and such statements are not an attempt to draw attention to the problem of staffing, then his resignation may be announced soon.

Otherwise, there could be a major transfer campaign in the winter, allowing the mentor to continue working.