On the way to revival: how Rostov returns to the RPL elite thanks to successful selection and the work of Karpin

After six rounds, only three teams have not lost so far.

But if this was to be expected from Zenit and Dynamo, even despite the departure of long-term leader Artyom Dziuba and parting with head coach Sandro Schwartz, then Rostov's unbeaten streak came as a surprise to many.

Especially considering the fact that a year ago the team managed to concede three times by this moment and scored only five points - seven less than now.

Certainly, there are several reasons for that.

And do not forget, though not about a solid, but the difference in the level of rivals.

Like a year ago, at the start, Karpin's wards met with Dynamo, Khimki and Pari NN, but in 2021 they were also tested for strength by Zenit, CSKA and Ural - a more impressive trio than the patient disaster "Locomotive", noticeably weakened "Sochi" and only returned to the top division "Orenburg".

But still, this cannot completely neutralize the starting surge.

After all, now the team seems to be much more solid, well-coordinated and ambitious.

The main reason is Valery Karpin, due to the removal of Russia from international competitions, wholly focused on club football.

At the beginning of last season, he was also at the helm, but with all his thoughts he was already in the national team, preparing for the decisive stage of the World Cup qualifying tournament in Qatar.

As a result, after two failures, he realized that he was not able to combine two positions and left Rostov.

Neither Yuri Semin, nor Vitaly Kafanov and Zaur Tedeev could compensate for his absence.

Now the mentor is full of enthusiasm to once again turn the team into one of the contenders for high places, and so far he is succeeding.

With him, she not only regularly scores points, but also looks more modern in general - she returned to the top 5 of the league in terms of PPDA, which evaluates the effectiveness of pressing, significantly improved in creating scoring chances, improved her game in defense - and all this in conditions of almost complete lack of legionnaires.

The events in Ukraine left a serious imprint on the activities of the club, which in the spring lost all the players from far abroad.

Moreover, there were enough reasons for this: from the banal desire to use the lever provided by FIFA and try yourself in Europe to problems with logistics (due to the ban on flights from the local airport, Rostovites are forced to travel to field meetings by trains and buses).

In any case, all eight foreigners left, including up-and-coming Pontus Almqvist, Dennis Hadjikadunich and Kento Hashimoto, all of whom were important performers.

It was hoped that the return of Karpin would force some legionnaires to reconsider their attitude and return to the team, but this did not happen.

Someone left it on loan, someone was released as a free agent, and Rostov began to look for a replacement close in terms of level on the Russian market.

And the current results show that the breeding department managed, albeit partially, to succeed.

Rostov's summer transfer campaign cannot be called large-scale.

A pupil Danil Khromov was raised to the first team, Kirill Shchetinin and Alexei Mironov were taken from the systems of Zenit and Lokomotiv, respectively, reserve goalkeeper Nikita Medvedev was taken from Rubin, and Yevgeny Chernov was rented from Krasnodar.

In total, Donetsk residents spent only €500,000 on all this, which is an extremely small amount by today's standards.

The main funds were spent on the acquisition of two other players, who formed one of the brightest duets at the start of the championship.

So, Nikolay Komlichenko was discharged from Dynamo for €1.5 million, and twice as much had to be spent on Daniil Utkin.

In the first six rounds, Komlichenko scored five accurate shots, and if it weren’t for an unsuccessful penalty shot, he could well share the first line in the scorers race with Quincy Promes.

Utkin is the leader in assists (four), and in each of the cases it was Nikolai who became the addressee.

And this once again emphasizes how competent the decision of Rostov was to buy both.

In terms of sporting qualities, the overall striker and the central midfielder with an excellent long-range pass are ideally suited to each other, which is confirmed in practice.

With the advent of Utkin, set pieces became one of the main weapons of Rostov.

In the first four rounds, the team scored six goals, and all of them - after drawing free kicks and corners or from the penalty spot.

And this is the direct merit of Daniil, because it is he who performs serves both from the corners and from the free ones, yielding to more experienced teammates only blows from the “point”.

Perhaps not in vain.

Last weekend, he failed to realize a potentially victorious 11-meter shot in a meeting with Sochi.

Yes, you can complain about the small number of goals from the game, in which Rostovites share 14th place with Fakel (both three each), surpassing only the main outsiders of the tournament - Ural and Torpedo.

And this is a really disturbing fact.

In terms of the number of expected goals excluding penalties (NPxG), Karpin's wards are also in the bottom five, but they are only slightly inferior to Krasnodar and surpass Dynamo.

But a large number of 11-meter points earned testifies not only to the indiscipline of the enemy, but also to the ability of Rostov to provoke such situations.

So, two of them were appointed for a foul on Komlichenko, who was fighting on the “second floor”, one each for breaking the rules on Dmitry Poloza and Denis Terentiev, who burst into the penalty area.

And only with "Pari NN" the point was indicated after unreasonable rigidity on the part of the defender.

But the advantages of Utkin's invitation are not limited to interaction with Komlichenko and the masterful execution of standards.

Together with Danil Glebov, they made up one of the strongest and most promising links in the center of midfield, which is not so easy to find equals in terms of potential in the RPL.

Apart from the star Brazilians of Zenit, only Arsen Zakharyan and Daniil Fomin can be put on a par.

At the same time, Utkin and Glebov are 22 years old and both are capable of not only developing, but also bringing substantial funds to Rostov in case of resale in the future.

And sooner or later he will have to part with them, because due to the lack of a rich sponsor, the team is forced to live within their means and sell existing players in order to be able to acquire new ones.

In general, Rostov continues to stick to the line that was chosen immediately after Karpin joined the club.

The management does not have the opportunity to invest huge amounts of money, as a result of which the club is forced to specialize in attracting young talents and developing them with a view to subsequent resale.

This is confirmed by the average age (24.3 years), according to which the yellow-blues are in the top 6 of the league.

This season, Karpin released 12 performers under the age of 25 on the field at once, while only Artyom Ntumba Muamba received less than half an hour of time.

And this speaks both of the trust of the youth mentor, and of his desire to contribute to their progress - an absolutely logical decision in the absence of European competitions and real prospects for winning gold medals.

But if a Russian of Congolese origin can hardly be called a clip player, then one can safely rank among them both the newly arrived Mironov and Shchetinin, and the 18-year-old Viktor Melekhin.

Not all of them yet correspond to the level of a contender for high places.

Due to the presence of such a number of inexperienced players, it is rather difficult to assess the prospects of Rostov in the season.

More specifically, it will be possible to talk about them after 12 rounds.

Already in the next round, Karpin's wards will meet with CSKA, and then - confrontations with Torpedo, Spartak, Wings of the Soviets, Zenit and Krasnodar.