They will take their due for the long bench.

The victory over Khimki last Friday has become a reference point for the Urals: after a nightmare start, the team has finally come out of the basement of the Russian Premier League standings. And it turned out to bypass the joint area as well. The “Bumblebees” are in 12th place, the team has the potential to gain a foothold in the 10-12 line and do away with problems in the spring. A significant contribution to this leap was the acquisitions of Yekaterinburg residents.

Transfers were also under Shalimov

It goes without saying that the club decided to invest in strengthening only with the arrival of Viktor Gancharenko. The composition of the “bumblebees” changed in the off-season under Igor Shalimov. The Urals began to throw straw in case Ivan Kuzmichev left and bought from “SKA-Khabarovsk “central defender Emmerson, who knows how to use his bounty.

Ilya Bykovsky was pulled to the left flank of the defense by the double and Mingyan Beveev was taken to the other side. They also drew attention to Rodina striker Alexei Kashtanov and hired defensive midfielder Fanil Sungatulin from Spartak and Igor Konovalov from Rubin.

Nominally, the transfers covered poor positions (with the departure of Avgustinyak the support zone was empty and the Ural had trouble finding a striker for a long time), but the problem is different: none of the new players (except Konovalov ) had enough Premier League playing experience.

Such decisions are explained by the fact that Shalimov intended to keep the form of the main composition. Everything fell apart when Oleg Shatov retired with an injury, Yuri Zheleznov stopped showing his strengths and formed a pass yard in the support without Rafal. Along with strong opponents in the early rounds, this resulted in 0 victories in the new league under the leadership of Igor Shalimov. When Gancharenko arrived, the team, along with Torpedo, remained in the relegation zone.

Under Gancharenko, the approach changed

Victor, unlike Shalimov, saw the need for significant reinforcement, and club president Grigory Ivanov provided support. Here’s what the official said about the Ural relocation campaign in August:

Dzagoev? We don’t take a single player without a manager. Tomorrow the coach will assign us a task, the club management will try to fulfill it … Can Gazinsky move? Perhaps.

The first transfer under the new coach was midfielder Yuri Gazinsky, who was not useful in Krasnodar. The midfielder turned 33 this summer, but even in his current form he is a key player for the Bumblebees. Yury shows up regularly at the start, manages the pace of the game, opens free spaces with intelligent turns and gives subtle passes for a lethal position (Lokomotiv’s first goal was the result of a pass without touching by Gazinsky, the third ball in the match was a passage for Randzhelovich). And Fanil, due to instability, is more suited to the role of substitute.

In the last few days before the transfer window closed, the Urals made several transfers at the same time: striker Ray Vlut, winger Lazar Randzhelovich, midfielder Oston Urunov, defensive midfielder Ibraim Cisse, defenders Yegor Filipenko and Silvie Begich. They also returned Denis Kulakov. Each of them has playing experience at the highest level and Vlut, Randjelovic and Cisse have also played in Europe.

Gazinsky and Cisse: reliability at the center of the field

Market activity first of all gave depth to the “bomboli” bench. Kulakov can protect Beveev. Begich and Emmerson caught on early and Gerasimov / Mamin / Filipenko are able to take some of the load off him. Alongside the attack, in addition to Randzhelovich and Yushin, are Zheleznov and Gadzhimuradov.

The greatest variability in “Ural” – in the center of the field. The acquisition of Cisse allowed Gazinsky to go on the attack more often and move Mishkic to the “ten” position. Ibrahima took on all the work to promote the ball. Here is the heat map of him in the match against Lokomotiv.

The Guinean immediately took the lead also for assists (44.7 per game – 3rd place in the club) and accuracy percentage (87.3 – better only Mamin and the excluded Kuzmichev). Taking into account the fact that Gancharenko will have Podberezkin, Konovalov and Bikfalvi at his disposal after the restoration, the center of the field is the strongest ace in the Urals.

Randzhelovich and Kashtanov’s instinct for goals makes its way

Eric Bickfalvy has held the Bumblebees top scorer title for the past five seasons, but now the team has a few more milestones. A strong leap was made by Aleksey Kashtanov, who came from the Second League. He scored against Krasnodar and also opened the scoring in matches with Lokomotiv and Khimki, scored the winner in the cup match against Torpedo and assisted twice (Randzhelovich against Khimki and Bykovsky against Akhmat). While Kashtanov is in shape, Vlut who has arrived must start the games on the bench.

Lazar Randzhelovich quickly became the main on the right flank of the attack. The Serbian is not greedy and is ready to give up for a lethal position (passing Yushin’s goal to Lokomotiv), and he himself does not waste any moments. He scored against the Railwaymen from a rather acute angle, by the time he scored the goal, Khimki moved to the semi-flank in a timely fashion: both goals were victorious for the Bumblebees.

Ural has room to grow: in the future Urunov and Sungatulin can earn a place at the start, Konovalov, Yegorychev and Podberezkin are ready to replace, Shatov and Bikfalvi will help a lot after recovery. Yekaterinburg residents have the longest bench and because of this they are able to tackle the championship more smoothly than their competitors.