The Kazakhstan national team is going through a difficult process of recovering from sobriety. After the miracles with Magomed Adiev, when the team was promoted to the B division of the Nations League and played the qualifying playoffs for Euro 2024, already with Stanislav Cherchesov he scored only one point and received a goal difference of 0:8 in the new edition of the League of Nations.
After Adiev’s magic, the demands of the Kazakhstan team increased. You get used to good things quickly. And here – 0 victories with a new coach, who was invited with great fanfare and, according to the media, for a lot of money.
President of the Football Federation of Kazakhstan Adlet Barmenkulov said that the main thing for the team is selection for the 2026 World Cup. The Nations League is preparation for the selection, an opportunity to try something new and rebuild the team , as Cherchesov seems. be doing. The approach is quite reasonable, but the question arises: how does Cherchesov’s team fundamentally differ from Adiev’s team?
Kazakhstan national team in the Nations League – 2024
Photo: Harald Dostal/SEPA.Media/Getty Images
Kazakhstan is based on the same foundation that prevailed under the previous coach: reliable defense, discipline and finding chances on the counterattack. This does not produce the same results as with Adiev. But there is a reason: Kazakhstan has very strong rivals in the Nations League.
Austria and Slovenia participate in the Euro Cup playoffs. Norway was not in the Euro Cup, but its composition is significantly superior to that of Cherchesov’s team. Still, under Adiev, both in the Nations League and in qualifying for Euro 2024, Kazakhstan played not only with the best like Denmark, but also with those who are roughly equal in class or even far inferior, like San Marino. This does not detract from Magomed Musaevich and his team. However, the truth is that there were rivals with whom it was easier to score points than with Austria, Slovenia and Norway.
By the way, Kazakhstan played against Slovenia in the European Championship qualifiers. And on both occasions I lost 1-2. Now, with Cherchesov, the result is 0-3 away and 0-1 at home.
Things are bad:
Verdict for the Cherchesov team. Slovenia easily beat Kazakhstan in the Nations League
But the question is not really about the results. Once again: for Kazakhstan, one point in four rounds in the B division is not a failure. All three opponents are stronger, nothing can be done about it. The question is: is the Kazakhstan team capable of looking different? Not as a rigid number two, always giving the ball away, but more proactively, with some creativity, with attempts to play football ourselves, and not just kill the opponent’s football.
Surely both Adiev and Cherchesov would have made the Kazakhstan team more offensive if resources had allowed it. But do they allow it? As for the defense, the questions are minimal: Nuraly Alip, Alexander Marochkin, Marat Bystrov and other defenders provide reliability. Of course, they are not Virgil van Dijk or Antonio Rudiger, but they know what they are doing: they are good at fighting, they take off and, most importantly, they know how to hold on.
Baktiyor Zainutdinov in the game
Photo: EPA/TASS
We move to midfield and that’s where the problems begin. Kazakhstan does not have footballers capable of playing this sport. There are many destroyers, but there is a catastrophic shortage of “players”. Yes, there is Baktiyor Zainutdinov. But, unfortunately, he plays very little for the club, for Besiktas. And last season, when I practiced more, I played more often on defense, on the left or in the center.
Be that as it may, for the Kazakhstan national team, Zainutdinov is a top-level midfielder. But he is the only one! For Kazakhstan to improve the quality of its game, there must be at least two or three people like Zainutdinov. There is Maxim Samorodov from Akhmat, Ramazan Orazov from Danish Silkeborg. Both stood out in qualifying for the Euro Cup. But both moved to their current clubs only in the summer and the adaptation is underway. Furthermore, with all the talents of Samorodov and Orazov, their level still does not reach that of Zainutdinov.
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The progress of the Kazakhstan national team depends not so much on the coach but on the players. To grow and be competitive at a higher level, reliable defense and dedication alone are not enough. You have to be able not only to destroy, but also to create. And for this we need players with the right skills. If they are not there, there will be no progress. And it doesn’t matter who the coach is: Adiev, Cherchesov or someone else.
An example of the triumph of defensive football is Kurban Berdyev (who, by the way, worked in Kazakhstan, in Kairat). Playing as number two, his teams won titles, beat Bayern and defeated Barcelona. But let’s remember what kind of people Berdyev played in the midfield and in attack: Dominguez, Noboa, Natkho, Eremenko, Karadeniz, Azmun. All they had to do was throw the ball and then they could figure it out themselves.
Kurban Berdyev with Natkho
Photo: Alexander Safonov, “Championship”
This does not mean that Berdyev only dedicated himself to defense and neglected attack. Of course not! The point is that without these artists at the forefront, even with the most concrete defense, Kurban Bekievich probably would not have achieved what he achieved.
In the national team it is more difficult: you cannot buy a player simply for the desired position. Kazakhstan can only wait and hope that Samorodov and Orazov grow and add, that Zainutdinov plays more for the Club and Aimbetov scores goals again. Perhaps new players will appear who will deal with creation, not destruction.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is only focused on defense and will not breach the ceiling it appears to have already reached.
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