The irresistibility of Promes, the altruism of Sobolev and the problems of the guests: the main conclusions about the match "Spartak" - "Sochi" in the RPL

Ignatov did not become a full-fledged replacement for Moses, but created a goal

On the eve of one of the central matches of the fifth round of the RPL between Spartak and Sochi, only the coaches of the host team went to reshuffle.

Moreover, all of them, to one degree or another, were dictated by the state of health of the players.

Georgy Jikia returned from injury, but unexpectedly replaced not Ruslan Litvinov, but Nikita Chernov.

At the same time, instead of Viktor Moses, who was out for a long time due to injury, Mikhail Ignatov was at the start.

The midfielder came off the bench great in the meeting with Ural, so the choice in favor of him can be called justified.

Although many expected the appearance of Anton Zinkovsky acquired from the Wings of the Soviets.

And in the first half, there was no impression that Ignatov could become the main replacement for the ex-midfielder of Chelsea.

In terms of movement, he could not compensate for the absence of a partner, and frequent mistakes in transmissions only spoiled the impression.

For a football player in his role, 50% passing accuracy is an extremely low figure.

Plus, only a couple of them were aggravating.

It seemed that already during the break, Guillermo Abascal would put him on the bench, but the Spaniard had confidence in Mikhail and did not lose.

In the second half, he not only increased his activity, but also organized a goal against Denis Adamov.

It was he who made Sergei Terekhov make a mistake and actually assisted Quincy Promes.

As for Zinkovsky, he spent more than 15 minutes on the field for the first time since the first round and took the chance pretty well.

Already seven minutes later, he scored his first goal for Spartak, and in general he looked quite bright and received 7.0 points according to WhoScored.

And it is unlikely that anyone will be surprised if, already in a meeting with Dynamo, he will return to the start again and take the place of the right winger in the top three.

Promes scored a brace, Sobolev took the lead in assists

In turn, the attacking duo of Spartak again demonstrated that they are one of the strongest in the country.

It's one thing to create a bunch of chances in a match with the pouring "Ural", another - with "Sochi", claiming to be the leader of the championship.

And if Promes continues to amaze with his goalscoring qualities, then Sobolev - to progress in accompaniment.

This time around, he didn't move as much in depth and participate in the ball rally, but again he was focused more on creating situations for scoring more than a goal.

So, Alexander struck only one blow, but he gave three key passes at once, and one of them became effective.

It was he who helped Zinkovsky excel and caught up with Daniil Utkin in the race of assistants.

Promes, meanwhile, can safely be considered, if not the strongest, then the brightest attacking player of the start of the season.

In five meetings, he scored six goals and provided two assists - more than anyone in the league.

And his second goal against Sochi reminded Quincy of the time of his first arrival at Spartak.

He made a trademark slalom from the left flank to the center and "shot" the opponent's goalkeeper.

But not only statistics evaluate the Dutchman's contribution to the success of the red and white.

Now he perfectly combines the functions of a playmaker and a finisher, which once again speaks of his importance for the team.

"Sochi" did not have enough strength and scoring center forward

Even though the guests were again defeated with a big score, the meeting with Spartak cannot be called a full-fledged failure.

Yes, according to its results, it became obvious that there were problems with “physics” and the inability of Dmitry Tochilin’s wards to spend all 90 minutes at the same level.

But this does not negate the fact that in the first half they looked very good and dominated the championship leader for a long time.

Sochi withstood the starting onslaught of the opponent, after which they seized the initiative and proved before the break why they are one of the best RPL teams in terms of pressing and organizing the game in general.

And even if in the second half Sochi conceded three times at once, but he himself could have scored as many.

And in this regard, the xG system does not quite correctly evaluate the moments of the guests.

For example, the episode with the participation of Vladislav Sarveli, who decided to roll on a partner instead of hitting himself from a lethal position, was not taken into account.

Or a glaring mistake by Georgy Melkadze.

The ex-forward of Spartak mistakenly thought that he was offside and did not finish the episode.

Although, in fact, he could go one on one and bring his team forward.

And this once again makes us think about the lack of a worthy successor for Mateo Cassierra.

Last season, the Colombian scored 14 goals in all tournaments and became Sochi's top scorer, and with his departure, a void has formed in the attack, which neither Sarveli nor Melkadze have been able to fill.

And if in the near future the club does not attend to the acquisition of a forward striker, then it risks not counting a number of points.

The loss of Fedotov has become too serious for Sochi

One way or another, the loss to Spartak confirmed the emerging trend.

Sochi again lost to one of the nominal opponents in the fight for high places and made them seriously doubt their prospects.

From the silver medalist of the last championship, they clearly expected, if not a repetition of the result, then at least a struggle for getting into the top three, but in the current conditions it is quite difficult.

In the summer, the team lost not only Cassierra, but also the main defender Rodrigao and head coach Vladimir Fedotov.

And while the restructuring is going quite painfully.

If in the last championship Sochi scored a total of nine points in a four-match confrontation with Spartak and CSKA, now they have not a single one after two meetings.

And even though Tochilin's wards looked good in both, they lost with a devastating score (0:3).

And this may well indicate their falling out of the favorites and moving into the category of teams from the second five.

At the moment, it seems that the team does not have the necessary resources to compete with the giants, and the current coaching staff is not able to make her jump above her head.