"Zenith"

Strengthening positions: goalkeeper, central defender

Despite the fact that the Petersburgers have the strongest squad in the RPL, in winter they, like their competitors, will not be hindered by strengthening.

First of all, we are talking about the center of defense.

In early January, the captain Dejan Lovren left the team, and only three representatives of this role remained in it: Rodrigao, Dmitry Chistyakov and Nuraly Alip.

I bought the rights to the last club from Kairat in advance.

Obviously, with such a selection of performers, in the event of injuries and disqualifications, the Petersburgers run the risk of encountering problems even in the absence of European cups.

The arrival of Renan from Corinthians will help to partially solve it (in addition to him, midfielder Du Queiroz became part of the Yuri Alberto exchange deal).

However, the 19-year-old foreigner, who has not previously played outside his native country, in any case, will need time to adapt.

In addition, he began to regularly receive practice at Corinthians only last year.

There are questions about the goalkeeper line.

On the one hand, Mikhail Kerzhakov leads the current championship draw both in terms of the number of matches to "zero" (9) and the average percentage of parried shots (79.2%).

On the other hand, rivals threaten his possessions extremely rarely.

In addition, the experienced goalkeeper is 35 years old, and in the summer of 2022 he thought about ending his career.

Daniil Odoevsky and Alexander Vasyutin, who are in the reserve, are not yet drawn to the role of “first number”, and Ivan has completely returned to Brazil.

But Zenit can pay attention to free agent Nikita Khaikin.

Although the champion of Norway intended to try his hand in England, a lucrative offer from Russia can change his mind.

"Spartacus"

Strength positions: right back

But Spartak, which is on the second line in the table, boasts an almost perfect line-up without weaknesses.

In the fall, Muscovites faced, for example, difficulties in the support zone, but they were caused solely by injuries.

In the winter, Victor Moses, Nail Umyarov, Mikhail Ignatov, Pavel Maslov, and Keita Balde, who had served a disqualification for violating anti-doping rules, should finally return to duty.

Guillermo Abascal will have to puzzle over how to give them all practice.

Only Alexander Sobolev, Shamar Nicholson and Balde claim to be the center forward.

However, the latter two, like Alexander Selikhov, will not help the team in the next six matches of the National Cup due to the sanctions imposed following a fight with Zenit players.

If you think about it, then only the right flank of the defense needs to be strengthened.

In the first part of the season, young Daniil Denisov closed it almost without alternatives, although there were some failures, for example, in meetings with St. Petersburg in the RPL and the Super Cup.

But Daniil is one of the best tacklers in the team (2) and, in addition, boldly joins the attacks, which allowed him to score five points in all tournaments.

However, with the possible departure of Nikolai Rasskazov to Wings of the Soviets, the young footballer will clearly need a replacement.

Of course, Daniil Khlusevich will calmly play in this position, but it's already hard to imagine the left side without him.

At the same time, Spartak has already strengthened the center of defense.

The contract was signed with the young defender of "Cerro Porteño" Alexis Duarte.

It cannot be ruled out that in the spring it is the Latin American who will act in tandem with Giorgi Jikia.

Nikita Chernov and Mikha Mevlya did not look very reliable, and Abaskal was even forced to lower Ruslan Litvinov below the nominal defensive midfielder.

"Rostov"

Strengthening positions: goalkeeper, attacking edges

The roster of southerners also looks impressive at first glance.

Nikolai Komlichenko and Daniil Utkin, bought from Dynamo and Krasnodar, immediately became leaders.

Young Kirill Shchetinin and Alexei Mironov added competition to the middle of the field.

And Alexander Silyanov, loaned from Lokomotiv, won the competition on the right side of the defense and even received a call-up to the national team.

However, it is unlikely that Valery Karpin is completely satisfied with all the wards.

So, he may have questions for the players in the attacking group.

If Komlichenko has already scored eight goals and, in addition, gave a number of assists and earned a lot of penalties, then his partners are not at all so productive.

Dmitry Poloz, although he is the top scorer of the yellow-blues with nine goals, scored only twice from the game.

In addition, he never assisted colleagues.

Roman Tugarev's statistics are even worse, he is able to play on both flanks: two goals and zero assists.

Not everything is smooth at the last frontier.

It seemed that in the summer the club acquired Nikita Medvedev, who played in Rubin and Lokomotiv, as a substitute for Sergei Pesyakov.

However, he suffered a severe knee injury.

As a result, the first number was left without a reliable reservist.

The place in the reserve was most often occupied by the very young Mikhail Tsulaya.

In November, the 17-year-old athlete even made his debut in the Russian Cup and conceded four goals from Orenburg.

"Dynamo"

Reinforcement positions: none

But it is difficult for the white-blues to give advice regarding the formation of the composition in winter.

In the summer, the team lost a number of leading legionnaires, including Fabian Balbuena, Guillermo Varela, Nicolo Moro and Sebastian Szymanski.

They were replaced by Roberto Fernandez, Nicholas Marichal, Eli Dasa, Matthias Norman and Nicholas Moumi Ngamalyo.

The fact that the blue and white, having survived such a rotation, remained a contender for medals is a great merit of the new coach Slavisa Jokanovic.

At the training camp, he will be faced with the task of finally integrating newcomers into the scheme and bringing the teamwork of existing performers to automaticity.

First of all, this concerns Norman.

The Norwegian agreed to return to Russia despite the ban on playing for the national team, and the blue and white fans were very hopeful that he would painlessly replace Moro in the support zone.

However, the Scandinavian suffered a shoulder injury in October and did not appear on the field again.

In the new year, having recovered, he should make a powerful fist in the center of the field with Daniil Fomin and Arsen Zakharyan.

Good news for fans of the blue and white was the statement of Alexei Safonov, Konstantin Tyukavin's agent, that his client was not going to leave Dynamo in the winter.

Otherwise, the experienced Fedor Smolov would have been left without a strong competitor, who scored five goals in the RPL in the first part of the season.

CSKA

Strengthening positions: midfield

With the arrival of Ilya Agapov, the army team solved one of the main tasks in the winter transfer window, strengthening the center of defense.

Now Vladimir Fedotov, in addition to the recruit, is able to count on Igor Diveev, Willian Roshu, experienced Kirill Nababkin and Vadim Karpov, who returned from loan.

And even Bruno Fuchs' loan to Atlético Mineiro should not cause alarm among fans.

But strengthening in the support zone would obviously not hurt.

In the summer, the club spent a total of more than €13 million on the market, including €2.5 million for Victor Mendez and €0.5 million for Sasha Zgyelar.

However, both are still unimpressive.

Their only plus is a high percentage of accurate passes.

The Chilean is on the first line in the team for this indicator (86.5%), and the Serb is on the fourth (81%).

Unfortunately, mostly legionnaires give the ball to their neighbors and do not seek to aggravate, which negatively affects the beginning of attacks.

It is not surprising that Viktor and Sasha still do not have a single point in their assets, although in previous clubs they were much more productive.

It is no coincidence that Fedotov intended to invite Christian Noboa from Sochi in the summer, but the transfer never took place.

It remains to be hoped that the newcomers will finally adapt to Russia.

Otherwise, the versatile Ivan Oblyakov and Konstantin Kuchaev, who have experience playing in this position, will have to drop a little lower in the spring.

"Krasnodar"

Reinforcement Positions: Center Forward

In the spring of last year, Alexander Storozhuk received from his successor not the best inheritance.

Almost all foreigners left the team, and he had to make do with the forces of his own pupils.

Fortunately, Krasnodar, even in such a situation, fought for medals to the last.

Ten months later, the domestic specialist left Vladimir Ivic with a much more balanced team.

Almost every position is covered by at least two players.

In addition, in January, right winger Moses David Cobnan and attacking midfielder Kadi were added to its squad.

Not everything is smooth only in the attack.

At the moment, there is no replacement for John Cordoba on the edge.

The Colombian scored nine goals in the first part of the season, while another nominal center forward, Jonathan Okoronquo, spent only 85 minutes on the field.

In addition, in December there were rumors about the interest in the Latin American of Turkish and German clubs and a possible departure in the winter.

In this case, the southerners can replace him with Artyom Dzyuba, who is still in the status of a free agent.

Although the former captain of the Russian national team does not have high speed, he clings to balls and plays with partners.

There is no doubt that the utterly motivated veteran, who scored 11 times last season in the RPL, will benefit Krasnodar.

In addition, Sergei Galitsky always respected older performers and was happy to invite them, for example, Vladimir Bystrov, Roman Shirokov and Marat Izmailov.