Bet on the experience of Bilyaletdinov and Yuran: Khimki and Nizhny Novgorod dismissed Gogniev and Gorlov

Terrible defeats and loud scandals

In early April, there were two coaching resignations in the RPL. After crushing defeats in the 21st round, the management of two outsider clubs - Khimki and Nizhny Novgorod - decided to change the coaches. After the resumption of the championship, the teams managed to draw only two matches (the result of one of them was annulled) and significantly worsened their positions in the struggle to maintain their residence in the RPL.

For the penultimate red and black, the situation is close to disaster. They have just 13 points and are four points away from the transition zone for the right to remain in the elite division. Moreover, in the Team near Moscow, for the third time, they decided on such a drastic step during the season.

The first to be dismissed after the fourth round was Sergey Yuran. Nikolai Pisarev, who replaced the specialist, who simultaneously worked in the staff of Valery Karpin in the Russian national team, lasted only 22 days. Spartak Gogniev worked for seven months.

Great hopes were pinned on the young specialist, because he showed himself well in the FNL. Alania, headed by him, took fourth place in 2021 and was supposed to receive the right to play in the playoffs for promotion. However, Vladikavkaz residents were deprived of this opportunity due to the non-compliance of the home stadium with the requirements of the regulations. A year later, the team sensationally made it to the semifinals of the Cup of the country, where they lost to Dynamo. At the same time, he showed bright attacking football, and Gogniev himself is remembered for his expressiveness and harsh criticism of the referees.

Unfortunately, the transition to the next level was unsuccessful. In 19 matches under his leadership, Khimki won only one victory and achieved three draws, and therefore the resignation looks justified.

To the coach's credit, he tried to put a modern game based on ball control (with an indicator of 51% the team ranks sixth in the current RPL draw) and high pressure. According to PPDA (the number of passes made by the opponent before the selection in the other half), it is completely second (9.11), second only to Spartak (8.26). Even in meetings with the giants, the red and black sought to act boldly. They almost took points from Zenit, conceding the decisive goal only in the 91st minute. And in matches that ended in defeats, they often did not deserve such a result, for example, in the last game against Krasnodar, they had 47% possession of the ball and made slightly fewer shots (11 against 16).

The problem was that the level of the wards did not allow the specialist to put such football without serious damage to the defense. If opponents managed to cope with the pressure, they got the opportunity to break into huge free zones in the other half. The team near Moscow was also ruined by the desire to raise the protective line high to ensure maximum density.

These marks were especially successfully used by the leading teams. With the help of long passes, they easily passed the defense and created a lot of chances. It is not surprising that under Gogniev, Khimki conceded 54 goals (an average of almost three per game) and suffered five major defeats (Lokomotiv - 0:5, Spartak - 0:5, Dynamo - 1:6, Krasnodar - 1:4 and 0:6).

Such results are also explained by the conflicts of the coach with the leading defenders. In the autumn, he removed the previously irreplaceable Brian Idova, Dmitry Tykh and Captain Yegor Danilkin. At the end of October, their fate was shared by Denis Glushakov, who cemented the support zone. In a disastrous confrontation with Dynamo, Gogniev replaced him in the 35th minute and swore obscenely afterwards. The veteran was not included in the application again, and in January he terminated his contract.

In winter, the composition of the team changed dramatically. In addition to these performers, other people who had previously made up its backbone left - Ilya Lantratov, Ilya Kukharchuk, Alexander Filin and others. They were replaced mainly by little-known legionnaires. In the first matches after the resumption of the season, it seemed that the personnel revolution had benefited the red and black. They parted ways with Fakel (1:1), gave a fight to Zenit (2:3) and Rostov (0:1). But another defeat against Krasnodar led to the resignation of Gogniev.

Unfortunately, this stage of his career was more remembered for scandals and conflicts. The most revealing in this regard was the mentioned game with the white and blue. After the first goal conceded, the coach saw a card in front of him when he began to complain to the referee. At half-time, he did not calm down and was sent off. And after the final whistle, the specialist attacked the correspondent of the Match Premier TV channel, as he was not satisfied with the question asked before the game.

He regularly quarreled with his own wards. The expulsion of a number of leaders was mentioned above. At the training camp in January, according to media reports, he almost got into a fight with Ayaz Guliyev. Later, the midfielder confirmed that the conversation in a raised tone did take place, but no more. And after the resumption of the season, Gogniev at the base shouted at Tykhy and the same Guliyev who were suspended from working with the base. Allegedly, the security service had to settle the dispute.

Despite another resignation, the future of Khimki remains vague. It will be extremely difficult to escape from relegation from the RPL under the leadership of "acting" Rinat Bilyaletdinov. In the remaining rounds, the team will face CSKA, Lokomotiv, Dynamo, Spartak, strong Akhmat and Ural, as well as direct competitors from the lower chatsy table. There were also rumors that the club in case of loss of a place in the elite will cease to exist, although the management denied this.

Technical defeat and lack of experience

A completely different situation has developed in Nizhny Novgorod. The team led by Mikhail Galaktionov showed good results and seemed to be far from the struggle for survival. In November, he ended the year with the most important victories over CSKA and Akhmat and is located on the 12th place. However, the team was undermined by the unexpected departure of the coach to Lokomotiv.

The club chose his replacement for a long time and eventually settled on a rather ambiguous candidate. 35-year-old Artem Gorlov, like Gogniev, had no experience in the RPL and before that worked mainly in the third strongest division of the country. He also tried himself in neighboring Latvia. Last summer, the novice specialist took Over Enisey and left it in fourth position in the FNL with a good chance of promotion.

However, the coach himself in the RPL did not last long. It is difficult to evaluate this stage by four meetings in the national championship. On the one hand, nizhny Novgorod suffered defeats in all of them. On the other hand, they could not cope with the leading Zenit (0:3), Rostov located on the second line (1:2) and Lokomotiv (0:4), which scored an excellent move. It is symbolic that the de facto Galaktionov contributed to the dismissal of the replacement.

At the same time, the outsider in the 20th round at home could not beat the closing table "Torpedo" (1: 1), and because of the appearance on the field of Yaroslav Mikhailov, who was supposed to serve a suspension, he received a technical defeat at all. Also, Nizhny Novgorod in March was eliminated from the Russian Cup, losing to the same Rostov.

Probably, if Gorlov had come to Nizhny Novgorod at the beginning of the season, the management would not have rushed to conclusions. For example, Galaktionov also did not start too well: in the first five rounds of the RPL, his charges scored only two points. But then he managed to rectify the situation. However, in the current situation, when there are only two months left until the end of the championship, and there is no time to correct the situation, changing the helmsman looks like the right decision.

Gorlov, for all his talent and desire to instill modern football, simply does not have the necessary experience at the highest level, and most importantly it is not known how ready he is for pressure in such difficult conditions, when it is necessary to save the team from relegation.

Sergey Yuran, on the contrary, is ideally suited to this role. You can remember how last season he rescued Khimki. After his appointment in February, they scored 12 points in the remaining 18 rounds and climbed to 13th place. Then the red and black in the transition matches were stronger than SKA-Khabarovsk.

Tough Yuran like no one else is able to rally the wards at a short distance and put cautious football "from the stove" with an eye on the result. Moreover, unlike Khimki, the team retained all the leaders in the winter with the exception of Ilya Agapov, who left for CSKA. True, the calendar of the remaining matches of Nizhny Novgorod is even more complicated than that of its competitors.