KARPIN IS OUR EVERYTHING
It is very difficult for Rostov to give any advice. Last fall, he was the highlight of the season, combining impressive results (beating Dynamo, Spartak and Krasnodar twice and third after 17 rounds) with some great youth work.
The latter is evidenced by two facts. In the top 10 most valued RPL players, three are Rostov at the same time: Daniil Utkin (+4 million euros to 7 million), Danil Glebov (+3.5 million to 7.5 million) and Alexander Silyanov (+2 .6 million to 3 million) . In addition, Transfermarkt included the yellow-blue in the 20 best teams in Europe to develop young players. This ranking is based on a combination of the number of young players on the team and the minutes they have played.
Photo source: FC Rostov
Which of the two areas is now a priority: medals in the season or continued work for the future? These two tasks often directly contradict each other, despite the excellent work of Valery Karpin. Perhaps this is the fundamental task of the Rostovites – to create the most comfortable working conditions for the coach. He himself will do the rest.
WHO IS THE ADVOCACY CENTER?
Here’s a clear example of how the task of developing players and earning medals contrasts with each other. The center of defense is one of the factors that determine the results of the teams, and Karpin has only one experienced player here, Maxim Osipenko. In addition to him, there are Danila Prokhin (21 years old), Alexander Mukhin (20) and Viktor Melekhin (19).
Photo source: FC Rostov
The latter played a decent 13 games in the RPL and didn’t look too bad, but if the team is faced with the task of breaking into the top three, it’s worth taking care to strengthen this position. I think Rostov thought the same way. This is hinted at by Roman Gutzeit’s account that the club offered Dennis Hadzhikadunich, who was on loan at Malmö, two options: return to Russia or sell him. That is to say, the yellow-blues tried to reinforce the defense for themselves, or for a newcomer acquired with the money from their sale.
It turned out not to be pretty. The Bosnian footballer arbitrarily signed a loan contract with Mallorca. Apparently, he took advantage of FIFA’s right to suspend the contract. That’s just his team didn’t even warn. The Rostovites found out about everything from the media and now they intend to file a lawsuit with FIFA.
I hope they win it, but even if that happens, it won’t be tomorrow, but the defender is needed now.
SAVE SILYANOV
The Lokomotiv-owned CSKA pupil delivered a very high-quality segment in the fall: 2 goals and 1 assist in the RPL, plus 0.4 hits per game and 0.5 assists per hit. Not bad for a defender.
Silyanov was so good that Loko, after the restart, set out to return his footballer, who was on loan with the right to purchase. The Rostovites plan to activate the option for 3 million, and the railway workers are thinking about how to get the player back. As far as we know, there are no legal grounds to terminate the lease. The same opinion is shared by the player’s agent, Vadim Shpinev.
Photo source: FC Rostov
Silyanov is good on both flanks of defense and in the knockdown he was better than any Rostov winger, so the club can afford to lose him only for very good money.
STRENGTHEN THE CENTER OF MIDDLE-FIGHTER
In the trio with the greats Glebov and Utkin, which all our big clubs want, Karpin used either Kirill Shchetinin or Alexei Mironov in the fall, but both of them did not add quality to the team. An indirect confirmation of this is the extremely mediocre Whoscored scores for both: 6.49 for Shchetinin and 6.43 for Mironov. In a single match, autoscores shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but at a distance they are quite revealing.
Photo source: FC Rostov
It would be normal for Karpin to continue to trust young people and develop them, but if the task remains to win medals (and it is not a fact that she will come forward in the near future, because the richest clubs will probably solve the problem). leaders in summer), it is worth taking care to sign an experienced midfielder. In my opinion, Denis Glushakov, who left Khimki, would be perfect for this role. He has a good relationship with the coach, Karpin even called the midfielder to the national team in the fall of 2021.
FIND A PRODUCTIVE DOUBLE COMLICHENKO
Formally, this role is played by Egor Golenkov and Artem Ntumba Muamba, plus Kirill Moiseev went to the training camp, but I would like to see a substitute who is really able to strengthen the game from the bench.
If you close your eyes to age, free agents include Sylvester Igbun and Andrey Panyukov. And if the task of adhering to the strategy framework is mandatory, then it would be worth trying to negotiate with 22-year-old Timur Suleymanov (Pari NN) or 23-year-old Alexander Rudenko (Khimki). The first has seven goals in the fall, the second has three.
Photo source: FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod
By the way, the idea of trying to rent Hamid Agalarov from Akhmat does not look unpromising. In the autumn, last season’s top scorer suddenly installed himself on the bench for Grozny, so they won’t hit him much, but at the end of the attacks he can be very effective.
