The failure of Slutsky, the lack of a leader and the indifference of the fans: why Rubin deserved to be relegated to the FNL

Fans of Russian football will remember the 2021/22 Russian championship not only for another confident victory of Zenit and the failure of Spartak, who finished tenth in the year of the club's centenary.

One of the main events was the departure from the top division of the country "Rubin".

In less than a year, the wards of Leonid Slutsky managed to make their way from a contender for awards and a participant in European cups to one of the main outsiders, conceding six goals from CSKA and Sochi and unable to get the better of Khimki and Ural.

The apogee of the nightmare was the defeat from Ufa in the final, 30th round.

And this despite the fact that Kazan were in the lead from the end of the first half, and in the 103rd minute they had a chance to escape, but did not convert the penalty.

By the end of October, it became clear that this season would not be easy for Rubin.

By this time, Kazan had already lost in a two-match confrontation to Rakuv and sensationally dropped out of the Conference League, and in the championship they had a losing streak of five meetings and settled on the ninth line, ten points behind the leading Zenit.

Everything was complicated by not the most successful performance of the leaders.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who dreamed of moving to Europe, noticeably passed, and Sead Khakshabanovich and Anders Dreyer, who were acquired in the summer, did not fully justify their hopes.

The Montenegrin did not become the leader and scored only four (1 + 3) points in the “goal + pass” system in 20 championship games, while the Dane, although he started with a hat-trick and scored a total of eight times, sometimes looked lost.

And all this against the backdrop of a strange situation with the main striker George Despotovic.

In the autumn, injuries interfered, and in January the contract was suddenly terminated with him.

Moreover, sources reported that the reason for this was the conflict with Slutsky and his unwillingness to cooperate with the coach's agent Christian Emile.

Although the parties later denied this information.

Of course, the failure of "Rubin" is largely due to the mass exodus of legionnaires.

By April 1, of the foreigners in Kazan, only Montassard Talbi, Vitaly Lisakovich and Oliver Abilgor remained, and this despite the fact that the Dane at that moment was experiencing muscle problems and could not enter the field.

Slutsky lost his leading performers and was forced to do an emergency restructuring, which, obviously, he could not cope with.

Since that day, the team has played eight matches and taken only four points, and at the finish line they suffered four defeats in a row with a total goal difference of 1:12.

But is it worth it to write off all the failures of Rubin solely on the lack of strong foreigners?

There are reasons to believe not.

After all, the crisis began long before their departure in April.

Not counting the ending, the team went through a long series of four defeats twice (there was also an autumn series of five matches without a win).

The start of the first was at the end of November, and the second - at the middle of March.

But even in the second case, the club still had, if not all, then the majority of the strongest players, and therefore cannot blame the weak squad.

In addition, Krasnodar found itself in a similar position, besides the players themselves, they also lost their mentor.

Daniel Farke arrived at the club in the winter, but left it before he managed to take his players to an official meeting at least once.

The management had to rush to look for a replacement, as a result of which Alexander Storozhuk, a 40-year-old specialist who had previously worked with the youth team and the double of the bulls, was appointed to the position of acting head coach.

The clip was formed at the expense of the students of the academy.

Yes, Kazan citizens may complain about the lack of such hidden reserves, but this is solely their fault.

Sergei Galitsky invested heavily in the development of youth and was partly rewarded for this.

Among other things, Rubin still had a coach who was considered one of the strongest in Russia.

The only difficulty was that Slutsky himself was absolutely unprepared for such a development of events and was never able to take control of the situation.

How else to explain 10 defeats in 14 matches in all tournaments, some of which were devastating and humiliating?

In confrontations with CSKA and Sochi, Kazan openly “threw the oars” and allowed their opponents to “shoot” Yuri Dupin over and over again, a similar thing happened in meetings with Ural and Yenisei.

In both, they not only conceded three goals each, but also generally looked weaker than their opponents.

The Yekaterinburgers scored four more shots on goal (14:10), while the Krasnoyarsk team more than doubled them (14:6).

And Slutsky himself repeatedly demonstrated that he could not cope with the colossal pressure.

The specialist called Kazan "the most affected party in the RPL", and the wards - not a team, but a "group of players."

He reproached the leadership of the Premier League for the ban on the registration of players to replace the departed, and also, out of habit, lashed out at the referees.

Vitaly Meshkov, who officiated the second round match against Rostov, was especially hard hit.

Then "Rubin" already in the 19th minute was in the minority and subsequently lost 1:2.

At a press conference, Slutsky criticized Meshkov, reproaching him for arrogance and bias, and also called him "a parody of a judge."

The incident came to the attention of the Ethics Committee of the RFU, as a result, the specialist was fined.

Conditional suspension until the end of the championship was a weak punishment.

The nervousness of the coach was transmitted to his players.

It cannot be said that Rubin was definitely the worst team in the second part of the season, even if it performed frankly badly.

In terms of expected goals scored, he took only 13th place (11.34), and 16th (21.79) in terms of missed goals, but the second is largely due to two defeats in confrontations with the leaders.

This is confirmed by the number of predicted points (11.68), according to which they are ahead of not only Arsenal and Nizhny Novgorod, but also Krasnodar.

The problem is that the last two were careful about their chances and as a result scored more than they should, while Kazan players noticeably less (-4.68).

And this is largely due to the general atmosphere within the team and the inability of the specialist to inspire confidence in the wards.

The support of local fans, for whom football never became a favorite sport, was not strongly felt either.

At the end of the season, Rubin took only 11th place in terms of the percentage of stadium occupancy - 16.6% (and it could have been lower if active Spartak fans had not staged a boycott due to the prospect of introducing Fan ID).

According to this indicator, Kazan lost not only to Rostov and Ural with new stadiums, but also to Ufa and Arsenal.

It is hardly worth expecting that after the team's relegation to the FNL, the fans' attitude towards it will change in a positive direction and they will begin to fill the 45,000-strong Ak Bars Arena.

Therefore, at the moment, the prospects for Rubin do not look very bright.

It is still difficult to say whether the club will retain funding, whether Slutsky will remain in it, and whether many players will decide to devote themselves to the goal of returning big football to Kazan.

Especially if the local fans themselves are not interested in it.

But the responsibility should not be removed from the athletes themselves.

On paper, the team had enough experienced and skillful players who were able to take on the burden of leadership.

This is the ex-champion of Russia as part of Lokomotiv Vladislav Ignatiev, and the defender of the national team Ilya Samoshnikov, as well as Konstantin Kuchaev, rented from CSKA and Lisakovich, who transferred from the camp of railway workers.

But none of them were ready to take the lead.

Thus, for Rubin, the drop in class will be a serious test, after which it will become clear whether one of the largest cities in Russia needs football.

If the team retains the line-up and coach, competently approaches the next season, then it will certainly be able to return to the RPL as soon as possible and prove that what happened was just an unfortunate coincidence.

Although there is still a possibility that Rubin will get another chance to stay in the top division.

This will happen if the RFU executive committee approves the RPL reform, according to which the number of participants will be expanded to 18 or more teams.

Then Kazan citizens will either retain their residence in the Premier League, or get the opportunity to compete for it with one of the representatives of the FNL.