An ideal alliance: why signing Dziuba should help Lokomotiv reboot and save the season

The signing of a contract with Lokomotiv by Artyom Dzyuba can be called one of the main transfer events of the RPL winter.

The striker has been without a club since the beginning of November, when he terminated his agreement with Adana Demirspor.

It seemed that at home he should arouse the interest of many teams, but the search dragged on.

However, an agreement was finally reached with the railroad.

And right now the deal looks good for both sides.

Muscovites received a high-class football player for free, because it is no coincidence that he is considered the best scorer in the history of the Premier League and the Russian team (together with Alexander Kerzhakov).

The club will have to spend only on salaries, which, according to insider Ivan Karpov, will amount to 2.5 million rubles a month - not the biggest money for the elite division.

For comparison, in Zenith, the athlete received, according to media reports, € 4 million per year (approximately 300 million rubles).

At the same time, the red-greens take on certain risks.

The main one is the almost complete lack of playing practice.

This season, the newcomer has played only five matches for Adana Demirspor, in which he scored one goal.

And the last time he entered the field in an official game four months ago.

On the other hand, the forced pause has nothing to do with injuries.

The veteran has no health problems.

Motivation is also not in question.

After unsuccessful negotiations with a number of domestic clubs, he will be eager to prove himself and prove that he is still able to help the domestic top club, even in a difficult situation.

Moreover, saving Lokomotiv from relegation to the FNL will be an additional challenge.

And the fans are guaranteed to get bright meetings with the former teams of Dziuba.

For example, already at the end of February, the railway workers will twice measure their strength with Spartak in the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup.

And in early April, they will face a confrontation with Zenit.

Switching to the game component, Muscovites need a productive forward.

In the first part of the RPL season, Anton Miranchuk became their top scorer.

He scored five goals (four from the penalty spot).

Wilson Isidore disappointed after a bright performance in the spring.

The Frenchman scored only twice in the national championship.

In January, he could go on loan to Lyon, but the deal fell through due to a knee injury.

Ivan Ignatiev has four league goals, but three of them came against Orenburg.

Finally, Francois Camano hit the opponents' gate twice.

The arrival of Maxim Glushenkov should partly solve the problem, but it is not clear how long it will take him to adapt.

Still, it's one thing to successfully play for the "Wings of the Soviets" and another - to prove himself in the camp of one of the giants, even if he fell into a black streak.

In addition, the beginner is prone to injury.

In 2020, he suffered a knee ligament tear and missed six months.

Experienced Dziuba is immediately able to help Muscovites.

In any case, Artyom will add tactical variety to Mikhail Galaktionov.

He can start matches from the first minutes and establish interaction with partners acting on the flanks of the attack, including the young Sergey Pinyaev.

After all, in recent years, the striker has also revealed himself as an assistant and began to act great in accompaniment.

In this regard, it is possible to use it in a duet with a fast Glushenkov who knows how to competently break into free zones.

Galaktionov in Nizhny Novgorod acted according to the scheme with one striker.

Sergei Semak in Zenit also initially used Dziuba as a “tip”, but then combined him with Serdar Azmun and got a killer attacking pair.

At the same time, the power and ability of the former national team captain to cling to balls will help the red-greens in matches with rivals in the struggle for survival, who often defend with a low block.

A student of Spartak, like no one else, is able to crack a rich defense.

In the same way, he knows how to be useful, appearing on the field during meetings and increasing pressure on tired opponents.

For example, in the last RPL season, after substitutions, he scored three times and assisted his partners twice.

Finally, Dziuba will be extremely useful to Galaktionov not only on the field.

He can become an "uncle-mentor" for young partners, who are enough in the team.

Artyom is known as a sociable person who sets the mood in the team, he can not only joke and defuse the situation, but also, if necessary, contribute to the maximum calculation both in matches and in training.

It is no coincidence that captain Dmitry Barinov complained in the fall about players who did not fully give themselves on the field.

And just having a football player nearby who has gone through major international tournaments, scored in the Champions League and won all domestic trophies has a positive effect on young people.

Dzyuba himself also sees some pluses in signing a contract with Lokomotiv.

He will probably try to forget the first part of the season as soon as possible.

At first, Artyom made an unsuccessful trip to Turkey, although he was eager to try himself abroad, and then for a long time he could not find a team at home.

It was not possible to agree even with the Torpedo RPL, which closes the table.

According to Leonid Slutsky, the forward was offered to come to the gathering of car factory workers for viewing without guarantees.

It is not surprising that the footballer, who until recently led the country's strongest team forward, took this almost as a humiliation.

In such moments of failure, Dziuba is always especially good and motivated.

There were several episodes in his career at once when he clearly showed himself in short stretches.

In 2009, the striker, while on loan at Tom, scored ten times in the elite division and got another chance at Spartak.

A few years later, he spent an even more productive season at Rostov, when he scored 17 goals in the RPL.

Finally, on the eve of the home World Cup, the footballer, who fell out of favor with Roberto Mancini, went to Arsenal and spent several months shockingly there.

He hit the opponents' gates six times, and in the summer he made the whole country fall in love with him at the World Cup.

Now Dzyuba, as part of the railway workers, will have the opportunity to prove that even at the age of 34 he is able to score regularly.

In addition, just recently, last season, Artyom became Zenit's top scorer, scoring 13 times in all competitions.

And in the RPL sniper race, he is in fifth place with 11 goals.

At the same time, the veteran then received significantly less playing time than before: in the national championship, he started a third of the matches in reserve.

In addition, despite his age and anthropometric data, he was almost not injured.

In six years at Zenit, he missed only 12 games due to various injuries and, at worst, spent three weeks in the team's infirmary.

The colossal load to which he was subjected in recent years did not affect the state of health of an experienced athlete.

For example, in the 20/21 season, he took part in 34 meetings with Zenit and took third place in the team after Douglas dos Santos and Vilmar Barrios in terms of the number of minutes spent on the field.

To them it is necessary to add regular departures to the Russian national team, where, under Stanislav Cherchesov, the football player was also indispensable.

Talk about the toxicity of Dziuba is also untenable.

Many fans and experts cited a difficult character as one of the main reasons for the protracted search for the team.

Allegedly, if something does not suit Artyom, he begins to destroy everything around him.

However, it is difficult to recall such examples.

In Zenit, even sitting on the bench, he kept himself within the limits and tried to be useful, as evidenced by the statistics.

The only thing, scoring Dynamo in an away match after coming on as a substitute, allowed himself a cry in the direction of Semak.

After the end of the season, the player simply did not renew the contract.

In Lokomotiv, Dzyuba must debunk the myth of his difficult character and find a common language with Galaktionov, who is only four years older than him.

Given a chance to prove himself again at a top club, a rookie is guaranteed to be eager to thank the coach and help him complete the season successfully.