Photo: © Alexey Eremin / Match TV
Spartak in the derby against CSKA looked very bright in places. In many ways, it was possible to level the score and take the lead in the second half thanks to midfielder Anton Zinkovsky. The former player of the “Wings” scored a chic ball and constantly created sharpness at the opponent’s goal.
It is not clear why such a great player often starts matches in reserve. If Anton had played from the first minutes, the Red-Whites would have been simply unstoppable ahead.
Guillermo Abascal clearly weakens his own attack!
Missing element
At the moment, “Spartak” has a great attacking bunch – Quincy Promes and Alexander Sobolev. For two, they have already scored 18 goals and at the same time assisted each other twice. However, today it is not duets that are in fashion, but trios. And the “red-whites” could well form a great attacking trinity.
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The best scorer of Spartak after Promes (11) and Sobolev (7) is Roman Zobnin. The midfielder, who became the culprit of the first goal of CSKA in the derby, scored three times this season. But to consider Roman as part of an attacking trio would be ridiculous – he just scores sometimes. Zinkovsky is a completely different matter. There is no doubt that if Abaskal trusted Anton more, he would be able to put effective actions on stream.
The Spaniard, for some reason, is engaged in various experiments, not seeing an obvious solution. Zinkovsky’s place at the start is occupied by either Shamar Nicholson or Mikhail Ignatov. The latter, of course, is talented, but he doesn’t even have such a football drive as Anton. The question is, why did Zinkovsky not please the coach? After all, this is just an ideal addition to the 4-3-3 formation, with which Spartak has recently shown the most attractive football!
talent is wasted
In fact, Abascal keeps a superstar on the bench (albeit for the time being by Russian standards). Zinkovsky is a footballer in whom everything is perfect. He hits with both feet, beats one-on-one and is almost not greedy. The numbers confirm Anton’s class: among the more or less regular players of Spartak, he ranks second in terms of the average number of key passes per match (2.06). First place – Quincy (3.62).
One could assume that the point is not in the attacking qualities of Zinkovsky, but in his game without the ball. Spartak practice quite active pressure, and this requires players who are able to constantly maintain a high pace. But even here, Anton has a clear superiority over the same Ignatov. Zinkovsky is better than his competitors in terms of speed and sharpness, and their performance in defensive actions is not fundamentally different.
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Another question is how well Zinkovsky is physically prepared. Perhaps Abascal specifically uses it as a joker so that Anton can break the opponent’s already tired defense. This season, Zinkovsky played only once at the start – against Pari NN (2: 1). In that match, he did not score or give away, but he was still very good and earned a score of 7.2 from the authoritative portal SofaScore. Anton had a higher score only in the game with Sochi (3: 0), where the midfielder scored a goal.
Obviously, Zinkovsky deserves a chance at the core of Spartak. And the public is gradually starting to put pressure on Abaskal to trust Anton, whose talent is disappearing on the bench. Who knows: maybe the Spaniard will give up in the next round?
