Leaders are more important than coaching decisions.
Spartak has always been able to attack a lot
Vitoria and Vanoli made the red and white relegate to tenth place in the general classification RPL. At the same time, Spartak followed on shots on goal CSKA with a difference of a couple approaches, they effectively shared third place. In terms of shooting overall, the red and white were second only to Dynamo Schwartz and Zenit, again third. Even in a season in which they scored a miserable 38 points and outscored Pari NN by just five points, the Muscovites created chances. Now the performance is much better: 60 goals against 37 and another game in hand. But answer honestly. Was it Abascal who staged a beautiful soccer ball or are there two people on the ball? There is no competent work on the flanks in the attack, no dispatchers with split passes, no combinations between the lines, no ability to lure the opponent for the sake of counterattacks. But there are two distinct leaders.
There is no football without Promes and Sobolev
Demonstrated in the Cup, where Akron failed to pass. And before that, they flew from the “Urals” from the Way RPLwhen Promes and Sobolev did not save. Proven in the championship, where all of Alexander’s disqualifications fell on clashes with strangers, but without him Pari NN could not score. Defender Alexandrov stopped Spartak, as the Khimki defense had done before. Abascal’s team carries the ball without dangerous shots if individual solutions don’t save. For an hour and a half at home they hit two shots on goal, and the opponent had four attempts. And it’s good that Selikhov repulsed Rybchinsky’s blow. Spartak depends on two people, because Promes has 20 goals RPLwhile Sobolev has 13. If you add nine of their assists to other players, 42 of Spartak’s 60 goals will be scored in RPL. Many teams have pronounced offensive leaders. But if two people have created 70% of the balls and the team play is weak, then the manager hasn’t done enough.
Abascal does not accelerate player progress
Litvinov is not the best midfielder in the Russian league. In the summer they can bring Glebov from Rostov. Sobolev’s progress happened, because this tall striker is 26 years old, it’s time to add. But when Alexander started a dry run, the coach did not help him. Maksimenko, Prutsev, Umyarov, Martins, Zinkovsky, Balde and Nicholson will not say in an interview that thanks to Guillermo they jumped over their heads. And if you hear stuff like that, he condemns players for cheating. Khlusevich and Denisov also added strictly within the limits of age and talent, without the incredible work of the coach. But Ignatov, whom Abaskal often trusted, didn’t develop into a solid base player. And this is a great example. Tavares and Duarte were also unimpressed. And the Paraguayan is also the protagonist of a couple of sensational defeats.
Footballers don’t see Guillermo as a leader
Abascal with a sense of humor once named his son after Rasskazov, but the irony is that the whole Spartak is thick like Nikolai. And Guillermo is not the new Mourinho. Portuguese has always been conceited. In his youth, he jumped even more often and yelled louder. But Jose maintained strict discipline in the team. And he has no contact with just one club in his career, namely Tottenham Levy. Abascal acts like he’s José, but where are the trophies? He argues with the referees, he is indignant, he jumps like Tedesco, but it is unlikely that the team will call him “dad” like Domenico. Guillermo is like a degraded copy of the German Italian. Spartak is not a coaching team, and many mentors make dubious experiments on them. Abascal also does not affect team behavior. Too many conflicts and yellow cards. Also, the coach has a habit of looking for a recipe for victory not before the game, but during the game. But RPL Now it is as if they were created for Spartak. Uninhibited, productive, championship without looking back on defense. But Muscovites did not squeeze out the maximum.
Abascal didn’t improve his defensive results
You only need to concede a goal from Krylya Sovetov to rack up 38 defensive errors this season. Only three less than in the past. And now there was no defeat 1:7 to distort the statistics. Zhigo left, but did not get a new perfect combination in the center of defense, where Jikia often changed partners. Or George himself did not play. They did not wait for stability from Khlusevich and Tavares in defense. There are problems in the support zone, because working with two central players led to counterattacks from opponents in the center. Abascal asked for high pressure, because that’s how he should play a team pretending to be Barcelona. But intensive tackling of the ball is not only for Spartak, but also for Khimki. That is, by itself, it means nothing. The red and white are on a par with Dynamo in terms of the total xG of opponents, whose teenager has become the best in defense. Abaskal has nothing to be proud of in terms of profits, and that’s the problem.
Any decent manager would have bounced off the bottom after last season. If we draw an optimistic scenario, then Guillermo was just asking the price. Then he admits his mistakes and explodes in the summer that Zenit will start to swallow the dust. But a more realistic world in which CSKA he will beat Rostov and won’t give up second place. And without trophies and a ticket to the Champions League, young manager Abascal will find no motivation for his duties. Nobody says that the “red and whites” behaved badly. Such an epithet is more suitable for last season, even if Vanoli won the Cup that spring. But the paradox is that there is definitely not an incredible difference in the quality of football in a year for Spartak. It’s just that now Promes and Sobolev have created almost three times as many balls RPLcompared to last season.
The efforts of individual players were enough for a tolerable place with many unsuccessful matches. Spartak has 14 matches RPL no win. Too much for a team that expected to fight for the championship after the starting segment. In the spring, the red and white got rid of the illusion that a bold contender for a clear second place is about to appear.
