“God forbid, the Zenit coaching staff will give Bakaev a chance”

The fifth round of the RPL will be rich in bright meetings: six teams will play among themselves, leading the fight for medals.

In the central match, CSKA will meet, sharing the lead in the standings with Spartak, and the reigning champion of the country, Zenit.

According to the head coach of the St. Petersburg farm club Vladislav Radimov, Sergei Semak's wards will face a difficult test.

The specialist also assessed the chances of Zelimkhan Bakaev to replace the injured Claudinho at the base and explained why forwards Ivan Sergeyev and Mateo Cassierra still almost do not score in the national championship.

- Taking into account Claudinho's injury, did Bakaev deserve his chance in the confrontation with CSKA?

— Question to Sergey Semak.

Whom he prefers, he will enter the field from the first minutes.

Yes, it was Bakaev who replaced the Brazilian in Grozny, but pay attention, he has never been in the starting lineup of Zenit yet.

God willing, the coaching staff will give the newcomer a chance and he will be able to prove himself.

But the Spartak past in the game with CSKA will definitely not matter.

The main thing is that the Petersburgers are waiting for the match for the first place.

- Forwards of "Zenith" in the current season of the RPL scored only two goals.

Both at the end of the meeting with Lokomotiv were chalked up by Ivan Sergeev.

Mateo Cassierra did not score once.

What is the reason for such low performance?

- Let's be patient, because the teams have played only four rounds, the whole championship is still ahead.

I'm sure both will show their high level and start hitting other people's gates.

The most important thing for attackers is that they already have a lot of chances, they just don't convert them.

I think for Cassierra it's also a matter of adaptation.

But Semak trusts the Colombian and is waiting for him to score, and therefore, in recent meetings, he includes him in the base.

- Does it make sense for Semak to use two forwards at once in the game with CSKA, given the problems of Muscovites in the center of defense?

- This option is not excluded.

It remains only to wait for the match and see the composition of the opponents.

Now many say that Zenit lacks Artyom Dzyuba.

But when he left, everyone was well aware of the problems that could arise.

Still, Artyom, like no one else, knows how to catch the ball in someone else's half, while Cassierra and Sergeev are forwards of a different formation.

At the same time, with Dzyub in the team, many criticized the blue-white-blues for the abundance of crosses, especially in matches with opponents defending with a low block.

- Given all the difficulties of Zenit and the power of CSKA at the start of the season, can the army team be called the favorites of the confrontation?

- Definitely not.

The match will still take place in St. Petersburg, and Zenit is the current champion of Russia ... If last season I would have called St. Petersburg the clear contenders for victory, now I can’t do it.

However, I do not think that the loss of points in matches with Khimki and Akhmat should be taken seriously.

The championship has just begun, and there is still more to come.

This is not to say that blue-white-blue lacks motivation.

Stop dramatizing ahead of time.

- How can Zenit keep the bright legionnaires of the army Jorge Carrascal and Jesús Medina?

- Of course, they are great fellows.

The Paraguayan has already scored five points in the “goal + pass” system, and the Colombian has four.

But let's see how they perform in matches against strong opponents.

It's one thing to score against Ural, Pari Nizhny Novgorod and Fakel, and quite another to resist Zenit.

This applies to CSKA as a whole.

The team at the start of the season is over-praised, because its calendar is not the most difficult.

- Can we say that Vladimir Fedotov has found a new position for Fedor Chalov?

He works great in the pull and plays a lot on partners.

- It is very nice.

You can see the guy is growing up.

Let's not forget that a few years ago he became the RPL's top scorer with 15 goals.

Plus, I'm sure he benefited from the lease at Basel.

Having played in Switzerland, Fedor gained important experience.

And I never doubted that Chalov was a great football player.

“Safonov pulls Krasnodar forward”

The confrontation between Dynamo and Krasnodar promises to be no less interesting.

Muscovites under the leadership of Slavisha Jokanovic do not leave their positions under Sandro Schwartz, and the southerners, thanks to a crushing victory over Lokomotiv, are only one point behind them.

According to the former coach of the blue and white Sergei Silkin, fans are waiting for double-edged football.

The coach also admired the game of Matvey Safonov and highly appreciated the acquisition of Roberto Fernandez.

- Given the problems of the teams in the center of defense, should the fans expect high performance?

- If they score an early goal, there will definitely be a lot of goals.

In my opinion, we will not see closed football.

On the other hand, under Slavish Jokanovic, Dynamo is trying to show a more pragmatic game, to dance on the result.

In the match with "Wings of the Soviets" it worked, in the meeting with "Fakel" - no.

As for the problems of the blue and white in defense, I really liked the newcomer Roberto Fernandez.

In Samara, he not only opened an account, but also did an excellent job with his direct duties: he insured Sabu Sazonov, corrected the mistakes of his partners, covered the blows of his opponents.

If not for him, Muscovites could lose points.

It is alarming that the Wings, even with the departure of a number of great players, created a lot of chances.

- That is, there will be even more difficulties with Krasnodar?

“It's still a young team.

The main thing is not to underestimate it.

I think if Dynamo plays 100% of the possibilities with the southerners, they will achieve victory.

But if they start playing carelessly, expect trouble.

Southerners have very good youth.

- How correct is it when a lot of things in the team are tied to the goalkeeper, as in Krasnodar on Matvey Safonov?

- If you compare him with Anton Shunin, Matvey is already definitely better.

He is young.

His career is just beginning, while Anton's is already ending.

Shunin is more experienced, but Safonov helps out a lot.

Previously, he was the youngest in Krasnodar, and now he wears the captain's armband and influences everything in the team.

In fact, he pulls the southerners forward, although, one might say, he simply fulfills his duties, because the goalkeeper must save.

- With the departure of Sebastian Szymanski, Arsen Zakharyan was forced to take a place in the center of midfield.

Don't you think that this role is not very suitable for him?

He is not so strong in destruction, but the team lost his creativity on the flank of the attack.

- It's really quite controversial.

It seems to me that after the game with Wings of the Soviets, Luka Gagnidze reserved a place in the base.

In Samara, he did a huge amount of work, plus he gave an assist.

He led the whole game.

I am sure that henceforth the Georgians should make a duet with Nikola Moro in the support zone.

Zakharyan should be used for its intended purpose - in the line of attack, so that he can show all his skills there.

- In the match with Krylya Sovetov, for the first time in the season, Jokanovic provided a place at the base for two strikers at once - Fedor Smolov and Konstantin Tyukavin.

In your opinion, should the Serb make a choice in favor of such an arrangement in the confrontation with Krasnodar?

- It is difficult to say what kind of installation the coaching staff gave, but they did not interact at all.

Forwards must create dangerous moments together, understand each other, but I did not see this.

As for Smolov's performance, let's not forget: at the start of the season, the blue-and-whites had not the strongest rivals.

Fedor hit the gates of RPL newcomers twice each - Torpedo and Torch.

This is not an indicator.

"Rostov" and "Wings" he did not score.

- Can the right phalanx, which is covered by 33-year-old Sergei Parshivlyuk, become a weak point in the defense of Dynamo?

Still, he will have to restrain the young Eduard Spertsyan and especially the fast Olakunle Olusegun.

It will not be easy to resist such players.

But here the question should be asked: is the problem in Parshivlyuk?

For example, I do not think that with age he has lost in speed and will not be able to hold back Spertsyan and Olusegun.

Rather, we are talking about the overall harmony of defense.

Difficulties in their own half of the Muscovites regularly arose last season.

It was worth approaching the gates of Shunin, as a dangerous moment arose.

It is important that a person appears in defense around whom the game could be built, which would add reliability.

I hope that Fernandez will become such a player.

Let him be born in 2000, but he is already quite experienced and fights well on the second floor.

“Abascal found Sobolev the optimal position on the field”

Moscow "Spartak", after four rounds of deletions of the first line with CSKA, will try to interrupt the unpleasant series in the confrontation with "Sochi" and win a second victory over the southerners in the RPL.

Former red-and-white midfielder Valery Kechinov believes that the club is quite capable of it.

He also urged not to put an end to Anton Zinkovsky, who practically does not fall into the base, and paid tribute to the current RPL silver medalists, who continue to give results, despite the departure of the head coach and several leaders.

- Who, in your opinion, should replace the injured Viktor Moses in the game against Sochi, Mikhail Ignatov or Anton Zinkovsky?

- Of course, the loss of the Nigerian is a serious problem for the team.

As for who will replace him, Guilherme Abascal knows better.

But if we take a meeting with the Urals, Ignatov's candidacy looks preferable.

Still, he, having come on as a substitute just instead of Moses, immediately scored and then had a few more chances to score.

He deserved to be in the starting lineup.

- Zinkovsky this season only once entered the field from the first minutes.

Why does the coaching staff use it so little?

- I would not say that Anton is not needed by Spartak.

Yes, the red-whites play according to the scheme in which two players are under Alexander Sobolev and there is no place for pure wingers.

But it is rather a hybrid arrangement or, as Abascal himself called it, creative.

It may change during the match.

I'm sure Zinkovsky will find a place on the field.

He is a talented and skillful football player.

His time will surely come.

We must not forget that legionnaires can also leave Russia.

Now the same Moses was injured.

In addition, Anton's additional advantage lies in his versatility, he is able to successfully close several positions.

I am convinced that if Zinkovsky takes the chance, he will become a key performer for a long time.

He needs time to adapt.

- Sochi under the leadership of Vadim Garanin scored nine points out of 12 possible.

Can we say that the new coaching staff managed to perform a small miracle, taking into account the departure of Vladimir Fedotov, Rodrigao and Cassierra?

— To be honest, I did not expect that they would be able to start so well.

This does the Southerners credit.

This means that the team still has players who actually form its backbone, backbone.

They have not broken down and continue to bend their line, to play the football they like, already under the guidance of another coach.

- Sochi is a historically difficult opponent for Spartak, because in seven matches with them, the red-and-whites won only one victory and four defeats.

Are there any fears that the guests are able to take away three points from Moscow this time as well?

- I do not believe in this.

Yes, it happens in football that you can’t beat a certain opponent for a long time.

But all series end sooner or later.

Red and white are on the move.

They act aggressively, and most importantly, effectively.

It is no coincidence that Abaskal's wards already have 11 goals in the RPL.

I don't think Sochi in its current state is capable of stopping them.

For me, Spartak is a clear favorite.

- Does it surprise you how the game of Alexander Sobolev has changed in the new season?

He began to play along a lot more and got rid of the cliché "ram-type forward".

- I never considered him a technically limited performer.

Let's remember what a beautiful Dennis Bergkamp-style goal he scored at the end of last season in the match against Rostov, when he handled the ball with the first touch and sent it past the goalkeeper with the second.

Could a ram-type attacker who can only fight on the second floor do that?

It has always been high class.

But Abascal managed to reveal his strengths in Alexander and found the optimal position on the field.

Therefore, he succeeds.

- Can Georgy Melkadze become an additional problem for Spartak?

In the match with the former team, he will probably try to show everything he is capable of.

“He will be in a really great mood.

It all depends on the game "Spartacus" in defense.

If they act carefully and do not leave any free zones for Melkadze, he will not succeed.

It is important for Evgeny Chernov and Georgy Jikia to keep their concentration from the first to the last minute.

And so for "Spartak" now every match is not easy, whether the rivals are "Ural" or "Zenith".