On May 16, the next drawing of the national football championship ended.

According to its results, RT made up its symbolic national team of the tournament, as well as its replacement version.

The first included goalkeeper Yuri Dupin, defenders Mario Fernandez, Roman Evgeniev, Vedran Chorluka and Douglas Santos, midfielders Vilmar Barrios, Christian Noboa and Grzegorz Krykhovyak, flank strikers Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Jordan Larissuvard, as well as Art.

The second included Marinato Guilherme, Vyacheslav Karavaev, Georgy Dzhikia, Deyan Lovren, Ilya Samoshnikov, Oliver Abilgor, Artur Yusupov, Nikola Vlasic, Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Serdar Azmun and Alexander Sobolev.

Goalkeepers

Yuri Dupin (Rubin) / Marinato Guilherme (Lokomotiv)

A number of goalkeepers played the past RPL season at a decent level. However, the best of them, according to RT, was Yuri Dupin. The goalkeeper had regularly saved Rubin before, but in the final draw of the national championship he became one of the leaders of the team and practically did not make mistakes. It is especially important that he spent the spring part strongly. In 2021, the native of Barnaul played six out of 11 matches of the national championship to zero and did everything for Kazan to make it to the European cups. Dupin's performance in the Russian national team was also appreciated. It was not by chance that Yuri got into the expanded team at Euro 2020.

Marinato Guilherme, unlike his colleague, was not even included in the extended list.

This decision by Stanislav Cherchesov raised questions from the fans, because in 2021 the naturalized Brazilian played seven meetings in the championship to zero.

In total, he has 14 crackers in 25 matches, and this is by far the best result of the season.

However, the goalkeeper twice managed to concede five goals (from Krasnodar and Dynamo) and once - six (from Zenit).

Dupine, on the contrary, looked reliable in key confrontations.

As an example, we can recall his bright game with the same Petersburgers, Sochi and Dynamo.

Finally, Yuri has two reflected penalties in the games against Zenit and Ural, which allowed the Kazan team to score six points.

Left defenders

Douglas Santos (Zenit) / Ilya Samoshnikov (Rubin)

Moving on to the left-backs, it should be noted that there was no alternative to Douglas Santos at the end of the season. Firstly, the Brazilian was quite reliable in defense. In particular, he has 43 selections to his credit. According to this indicator, he shared the fifth or sixth place in the league. Secondly, the legionnaire brought his team a huge advantage in attack. With seven assists, he became the best assistant in the tournament alongside Christian Noboa. In addition, Douglas scored three goals.

The young Russian Ilya Samoshnikov is still inferior to the Brazilian, but his progress cannot be ignored.

A few years ago, he played at the amateur level, and now he has grown to the Russian national team and helped Rubin get into the Conference League.

Moreover, the footballer achieved all this in the first full season in the RPL.

As a bonus, the domestic athlete became the best in the league in terms of the number of successful selections (61).

Right backs

Mario Fernandez (CSKA) / Vyacheslav Karavaev (Zenit)

For the place of the right-back in the symbolic team of the ended RPL season, according to RT, only two performers, by and large, claimed.

And here the Zenit footballer was defeated.

Vyacheslav Karavaev turned into an irreplaceable footballer for the team from the Northern capital, but still lost to Mario Fernandez in a number of key indicators.

For example, a naturalized Brazilian, on average, made 1.9 tackles per match in the national championship (Karavaev had 1.8), 2.2 interceptions (0.6) and won 2 riding single combats (0.4).

He also found himself a little more involved in the CSKA game and made 48.3 assists, 1.7 of which were key (46.2 and 0.9).

Central defenders

Vedran Chorluka (Lokomotiv), Roman Evgeniev (Dynamo) / Georgy Dzhikia (Spartak), Deyan Lovren (Zenit)

The announced departure of Vedran Chorluka from Lokomotiv will be a serious loss for the team.

It seems that the 35-year-old Croat, despite his considerable age and injuries, still has no equal in the RPL.

So last season, he did everything for the railway workers to rise to the podium of the national championship and win the Russian Cup.

Guilherme's 14 clean sheets are largely due to him.

The veteran not only traditionally operated reliably on the defensive, but also launched most of the railroad attacks.

Roman Evgeniev, like Samoshnikov, made serious progress and even made his debut in the Russian national team, and with the youth went to the European Championship.

Moreover, the defender entered the top five players of the tournament in terms of the number of interceptions (2.7), and in terms of the number of selections (2), Roman had no equal among the representatives of his role.

The decision to prefer the young Dynamo player Georgy Dzhikia may raise questions among Spartak fans, but the main player of the national team as a whole spent an average season and did not reach a fundamentally new level, unlike his compatriot, and the red and white in the number of goals conceded (37) ninth place from the bottom.

For comparison, Dynamo have 33 of them.

As for Dejan Lovren, he did not spoil Zenit's game, but he did not look better than Branislav Ivanovic.

At the same time, the injured Croat missed nine games of the national championship at once, including five in the end.

And Dmitry Chistyakov, on the whole, painlessly replaced the vice-champion of the world.

Defensive midfielders

Vilmar Barrios (Zenit) / Oliver Abilgor (Ruby)

The acquisition of Vilmar Barrios can be safely called one of the most successful transfers for Zenit under Sergei Semak, since all three of the last blue-white-blue championship titles are his great merit. So in the past season, it was hard to imagine Petersburgers without a capable Colombian, who reliably cemented the support zone and untied his partners' hands in attack. It is significant that he has no equal in the team in terms of the number of interceptions (1.8), and in terms of the number of tackles (2.3) he is second only to Daler Kuzyaev (2.6). At the same time, most of Zenit's attacks began through the Latin American. On average, he made 59.4 assists per game (also the best in the team) with an accuracy of 88.3%.

It should be noted and Oliver Abilgore from "Ruby", who in destruction looked no weaker than Barrios.

For example, the Dane had no equal in the league in terms of the number of interceptions (2.9).

And the height of 192 centimeters allowed him to take the third place in the number of won horse single combats (5).

Central midfielders

Grzegorz Krychowiak (Lokomotiv), Christian Noboa (Sochi) / Artur Yusupov (Sochi)

If a year ago, Sochi fans had been told that their team would make it to European cups for the first time in history, and Christian Noboa would become one of the best football players in the championship, they would at least be surprised. However, this is exactly what happened. And the 36-year-old Ecuadorian made a huge contribution to the final success of the team. Last season, he experienced a real second youth and broke all personal performance records. In particular, for the first time in his career he scored more than ten goals - 12 (even half of them from the penalty spot), and also shared the laurels of the best assistant of the championship with Douglas with seven assists.

Grzegorz Krychowiak also had another strong season. At the same time, the transition to the inside position had a positive effect on the Pole's game. In 2021, he scored six goals in the RPL (nine in total) and gave three assists. As a result, the legionary became the team's top scorer in the national championship by a margin. The closest pursuer Fyodor Smolov has seven goals.

Artur Yusupov, although he did not make it to the main team according to RT, deserves a victory in the "unexpected opening of the season" nomination.

Experts knew him as a defensive midfielder and to a greater extent a destroyer, but with the transfer closer to the attack, the Russian revealed himself from a completely different side.

He has seven goals scored and two assists.

In the list of the top scorers of the team, Yusupov lost only to Noboa and Anton Zabolotny (9).

An indicative moment: in previous seasons of the RPL, Arthur has never distinguished himself more than two times.

Attacking midfielders

Nikola Vlasic (CSKA), Rifat Zhemaletdinov (Lokomotiv)

The absence of Nikola Vlasic in the main symbolic team may seem controversial, because the Croat scored 16 points for performance at the end of the season (11 + 5) and, according to this indicator, became the second among midfielders, losing only to Noboa.

On the other hand, the player did not play the second part of it in the best way and scored only three goals.

In many ways, the decline in the leader's game was the reason for CSKA's failure in the end.

But Rifat Zhemaletdinov, on the contrary, sharply added in the spring with a transfer to the position of an attacking midfielder.

This decision of Marko Nikolic helped Lokomotiv to rebuild the game in a new way and make the absence of the injured Anton Miranchuk almost invisible.

As a result, in the spring, the Russian scored three goals, gave five assists and not only received a call to the Russian national team, but also played three matches for it, twice being in the main team.

Extreme attackers

Jordan Larsson (Spartak), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Rubin)

Jordan Larsson and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia have made significant contributions to the ultimate success of their teams and have made incredible personal progress.

The Swede, who spent only his second season in Russia, became one of the leaders of Spartak and the team's top scorer in the RPL with 15 goals.

At the same time, the Scandinavian distinguished himself not only in matches with outsiders or middle peasants, but also in meetings with direct competitors - Sochi, Lokomotiv, Rubin, Krasnodar and CSKA.

Kvaratskhelia cannot boast of such statistics.

He has only eight points for performance (4 + 4).

But it was through his flank in the finished season of the national championship that most of Rubin's attacks (41%) went.

Defenders often could not do anything about the phenomenal dribbling of a football player.

According to this indicator, he is the best player in the tournament (3.4 attempts per match) with a serious lead over his pursuers.

Often it was possible to stop him only at the cost of a foul and a yellow card.

Center forwards

Artyom Dzyuba (Zenit) / Serdar Azmun (Zenit), Alexander Sobolev

It turned out to be very difficult to choose the best striker at the end of the season.

Artyom Dziuba and Serdar Azmun scored 39 goals for two, and the Russian got ahead of the Iranian in the race of the RPL top scorers only at the last moment thanks to poker in a match with the notorious outsider Tambov.

But one cannot fail to note the incredible shape of the domestic striker, who, even at 32, remains one of the best football players in the country and is indispensable for the national team.

Last season, Dziuba was not broken even by a loud scandal with a video posted on social networks.

On the contrary, after what happened, he only became stronger.

If before this story, the forward had six goals in the RPL, then after it - 14. In addition, he acts better than Azmun in the game and added six assists to 20 goals.

At the same time, 20 successful strikes in the Russian championship is a truly significant milestone, which in the 21st century was overcome by only two Russian players before Dzyuba - Alexander Kerzhakov (23) and Fyodor Smolov (20).

But the latter did so in the 2010/11 transitional season, which consisted of 44 rounds.

However, Azmun scored much more goals into the gates of the teams that somehow fought for getting into the European cups: three for Lokomotiv, two for CSKA, two for Sochi, one for Rostov, one for Dynamo, one - "Spartak", one - "Rubin" and one - "Krasnodar".

And the Iranian spent an average of 91.53 minutes on a goal, while Dziuba - 112.75.

Alexander Sobolev also had a great season. Having transferred to Spartak on loan from Krylia Sovetov at the beginning of last year, he managed to gain a foothold in the team and did everything for the Moscow club to buy the rights to him. The first part of the last RPL draw for the attacker was largely oiled by injury, but in the spring he turned out to be unstoppable - nine goals and three assists in ten games. It is not surprising that many consider Alexander to be Dzyuba's replacement in the national team. Spartak's forward, like his opponent, fights superbly on the second floor (5.4 successful attempts is the best indicator in the league, Dziuba has 4.3), but is still inferior to him in composure and playing along.