Stubbornness or rationalism: why Karpin takes risks without calling Dziuba into the Russian national team for the decisive matches of the 2022 World Cup selection

Artyom Dziuba's non-call to the Russian national team for the decisive qualification matches for the 2022 World Cup with Cyprus and Croatia was the main surprise.

In the expanded list, there were places for 41 players at once, but not for one of the best strikers in the country.

Valery Karpin dryly explained this "by the decision of the coaching staff" and stressed that he had not personally communicated with the forward before the list was announced.

In the summer, he had a personal meeting with his former ward, and it seemed that the parties managed to settle the former conflict, and the leader of the national team will continue to play for her and be of use.

But in September he was not on the list, and a month after being included in it, the striker suddenly refused the invitation, citing poor form. 

Now it is obvious that Artyom is in acceptable condition.

If at the beginning of the season he didn’t look the best, didn’t score and even lost his place at the base of Zenit, recently he has regained himself.

In the RPL, Dziuba does not leave the field without a goal in five meetings in a row, and in one of them he even scored a double.

Along the way, the forward scored the 100th anniversary goal for Zenit and repeated Oleg Veretennikov's record for the number of goals in the national championship.

At the same time, the game of Petersburgers is no longer tied to casts in the direction of the textured striker.

But he quickly adapted to the new requirements and established interaction with the Brazilians Malcolm, Wendel and Claudinho, looking great in the game.

It is not surprising that Sergei Semak returned the player to the starting lineup.

In the fall, he did not start at the base only in the matches against Chelsea and Spartak.

The high level of skill by the standards of the national championship is also proved by advanced statistical indicators.

The pupil of "Spartak" is in the top 20 in terms of the average number of strokes per match (2.3), shares 12th place with Alexander Sobolev in the number of won horse single combats (3.0), and for a football player, his position gives not so few accurate passes (72%).

The main complaints of fans to Dziuba do not relate at all to performance in the RPL, but to play in the Champions League.

Artyom entered the field from the first minutes in two matches of the main European Cup out of three, but did not score a single point according to the "goal + pass" system.

Indeed, he only failed in the meeting with Juventus, in which he won only three riding martial arts and gave the same number of accurate passes.

In the game with Malmö, although he didn’t hit the other’s goal, he acted very useful, in particular, he contributed to the removal of Anel Ahmedhodjic at the beginning of the second half, making a timely discount on Daler Kuzyaev and forcing the opponent to break the rules.

And in the match against Chelsea, the striker, having barely appeared on the field, created the most dangerous moment for the team.

On the one hand, it is difficult to argue with the fact that it is difficult for him to express himself at such a level.

On the other hand, the striker scored nine goals in total in the Champions League.

For comparison, the current main forward of the national team Fyodor Smolov has not a single hit in the main European Cup.

Anton Zabolotny, Konstantin Tyukavin, Hamid Agalarov and Ivan Sergeev, who got into the extended roster, never played there at all.

Returning to the topic of the national team, many doubt that Dziuba will prove himself in Karpin's tactical formations.

There are justified fears that he will not be able to actively put pressure on the defenders, following the example of Smolov, and, at 33, perform such a large amount of rough work.

Nevertheless, even staying on the bench, Artyom is able to be useful.

With his appearance in the application, Karpin would have the opportunity to vary the playing scheme in attack, which is now almost uncontested.

The Zenit footballer is still capable of pushing the defenders through, like no one else in Russia.

These qualities helped him more than once in matches with low-defensive opponents.

He would probably have come in handy in the confrontation with Slovenia, when Smolov was unable to catch the ball and gave way to Zabolotny during the break.

Moreover, in some games, the coaching staff could have paired Smolov and Dziuba, thereby deviating from tactics with flank attackers.

In this case, both would have the opportunity to demonstrate their strengths and complement each other.

Artyom is no stranger to such an arrangement, because in Zenit he played well with Serdar Azmun.

And most importantly, one cannot say that the three-time champion of the country is weaker than the competitors called up to the national team.

Only Agalarov (10) and Smolov (7) have scored more than him in the RPL at the moment.

At the same time, Dziuba could not distinguish himself for a long time, but then he began to upset his rivals in each round.

The Lokomotiv forward, although he enjoys Karpin's trust, cannot boast of high performance in the national team.

In four matches, he has only one goal - in the game with the group outsider Malta, when the goalkeeper made a gross mistake.

In other meetings, he inflicted a total of only six hits - a modest figure for a striker.

At the same time, most of them were not particularly dangerous.

Zabolotny is a football player with the same functionality as Dzyuba, but inferior to him in almost all respects.

Anton is not so good at playing along, is more straightforward and scores much less, and also has no experience of big matches.

There is nothing to say about the other three forwards, since they practically did not play at a high level at all.

At the age of 19, Tyukavin had just begun to be called up to the national team, like 21-year-old Agalarov.

Sergeyev was included in the expanded list for the first time, and with a high degree of probability his surname will not appear in the final one.

At the same time, despite his age, Dziuba himself, for sure, is still eager to defend the honor of the country.

Under Stanislav Cherchesov, he regularly came to the national team and took to the field even with injuries.

Clear statistics: after the home world championship, he missed only five matches of Russia: two - due to injuries and three - due to non-challenge after the publication of the scandalous video.

In other cases, he always helped the national team and remained helpful.

In many respects, this was facilitated by excellent health.

Despite his high growth and solid weight, he avoided serious injuries and, in total, missed only 12 meetings at the club level in his entire career.

Therefore, the striker is unlikely to have a desire, like Igor Akinfeev or Mario Fernandez, to focus on playing for the club and devote more time to recovery.

In addition, Dziuba, who closely monitors his own statistics, cannot fail to know that just one accurate blow separates him from the title of the most productive footballer in the history of the national team.

Now he shares the leadership in this indicator with Alexander Kerzhakov.

Both have 30 goals in their assets.

This moment should be an excellent motivation for the veteran, as well as the opportunity to go to the second World Cup in his career.

Finally, Dziuba can become for Karpin exactly the leader that the team lacks at the moment.

It is no coincidence that the new mentor transfers the captain's armband from one ward to another.

On the one hand, with such an innovation, everyone feels confidence in themselves.

On the other hand, there is no real leader capable of leading the team, and collective responsibility at the decisive moment threatens to turn into general lack of will.