The peppy start of Spartak and the unexpectedly pragmatic course of Krasnodar against the backdrop of Zenit gradually rolling into the season gave rise to hope for a real championship intrigue. Malcolm’s departure to Saudi Arabia and Wendel’s extended vacation further fueled talk of a real gold race. They lasted, however, no more than two weeks.

Just three rounds ago, Spartak went without losses and could look down on Zenit, which was inferior to Dynamo at home. After two powerful performances of the Semak team in the matches with the main openings of the start of the season, the layouts in the championship are perceived quite differently. The champion seemed to let other teams frolic a little, but very quickly showed who was the boss in the house.

Semak promptly responded to the brewing crisis

To the coaching talent of Sergei Semak, some are still skeptical. The general message of critics can be reduced to a simple thesis: “He has the best lineup in the league, taking gold with such a selection of players does not need much intelligence.” Such statements reveal a superficial person in the speaker. If you follow this logic, then Pep Clotet would coach Man City with the same success as his famous namesake.

Photo: © FC Zenit

Zenit had the strongest and most expensive line-up in the league under Lucescu and Mancini, but much more stellar and experienced coaches did not close those peaks that Semak reached. A class coach, apart from other qualities, is distinguished from an average specialist by the ability to respond to crisis situations. At the start of the season, Zenit got into a zone of turbulence, which was also shown by the match for the Super Cup with CSKA, in which in regular time the champion never hit the target, and reached the penalty shootout only thanks to Kerzhakov.

Then there was a rather gray game in Nizhny Novgorod, a loss of points in Rostov and a home defeat against Dynamo. Semak’s reaction followed immediately. The turning point is the first half of the game against Dynamo. It was then that the coach suddenly switched to a scheme with three central defenders and returned Wendel, the prodigal son of St. Petersburg, to the squad. Both moves worked, Zenit almost saved the game – a missed goal in the very end can be attributed to an accident. Most importantly, the team began the path to recovery after a short illness.

Semak needed one more game – for the final polishing of the new scheme. The victory over the “Fakel” was not without problems, but then the “blue-white-blue” trailer gained such momentum that the teams that managed to impress everyone at the start were in turn under its wheels.

The main summer transfer for Zenit has already taken place

At the moment of crisis, Semak showed that he was capable of non-trivial moves. The coach removed Robert Renan, who is considered the future star of the top championship, to the reserve. Atlético Madrid are already eyeing the young Brazilian, and his future transfer is estimated at 20 million euros. True, right now a promising defender allows too many liberties in defense. It was his two mistakes that gave rise to Dynamo goals.

So far, Renan is thinking about his behavior on the bench, and Nurali Alip plays in the center of defense instead of him. In the game with Ural, he was accompanied by nominal laterals – Karavaev and Douglas Santos. Unlike Abaskal’s colleague, Semak’s experiments bring real benefits to his team.

There was a lot of skepticism about the signing of Mario Fernandez, who actually did not play football for a year. If at first the Brazilian really looked hard, now he is able to maintain the required pace for 70-80 minutes. Very quickly, Strahinya Erakovic got a place at the base, who is getting better at RPL with each game. The rest of the summer recruits can only claim episodic roles: the promising Kovalenko and the enigmatic Du Queiroz have only a few minutes.

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

The main summer transfer of Zenit is Wendel’s comeback. For most of the summer, the Brazilian sipped beer at home and was not eager to return to St. Petersburg. The guy still managed to recall the current contract and the status of a professional player. As a result, the midfielder confessed to the team, returned to the squad and began to break. This was not even hindered by a small belly formed after a long vacation.

Wendel in this sense is very reminiscent of another Brazilian kayfarik – Wagner Love. Even the stern Gazzaev often turned a blind eye to the tricks of this cheerleader, who could miss all the training sessions for the week, and then go out and score a hat-trick in the derby with a smile on his face. Geniuses are often forgiven a lot, and at the RPL level, the same Wendel definitely deserves such a status. With his return, other South Americans ignited – Barrios and Claudinho. For Spartak, the task of neutralizing this trio remained unresolved.

Right now there’s no need to buy a superstar

Malcolm was unquestionably the best player on the team and the entire championship last season. But even with his departure, Zenit remains the main favorite of the season with a margin. Fears due to the loss of the main star have not yet been confirmed. Semak, even without buying a replacement for the top scorer, has several options for playing without Malcolm. Previously, the coach had already solved a similar problem when he rebuilt the game in attack after the departure of Azmun and Dziuba.

Now Semak again often chooses a scheme with two attackers, which is a rarity for the RPL. In a 3-5-2 formation, Sergeev and Cassierra are ahead. Last season for the Colombian went to adaptation, but now in six rounds he has already scored three times more (6) than in the entire previous championship. Sergeev left the field without a goal only once.

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

The match with Spartak showed that Semak also has an option with the 3-4-3 arrangement, which Fedotov uses in CSKA. In this variant, Claudinho and Mantua play the role of wingers, and either Cassierra or Sergeev is put forward on the edge. Most likely, in the upcoming game with the army team, Semak will prefer to mirror the scheme of his colleague. With two forwards, the coach prefers to operate in matches where his team has to attack more often from position.

For Malcolm, the Zenit team received 60 million euros from the generous Al-Hilal. The club definitely has the money to buy a new star, but the expediency of such a transfer right now is far from obvious. Zenit is able to take the sixth championship in a row in the current combination. And it is unlikely that we are talking about the fight against competitors until the last round.

David Neres / Photo: © FC Shakhtar

Nevertheless, the club continues to search for an investment option. It is known that Petersburgers seriously discussed the purchase of Benfica winger David Neres, for whom they are ready to pay in the region of 40-50 million euros. The bosses of the Portuguese club want to get a lot more for the player. There is a more budget-friendly alternative in Braga’s Alvar Djal, who can be acquired simply by paying a release clause of around €20m.

Purchases of this level could be understood if Zenit had to start in the group stage of the Champions League in a couple of weeks. In today’s realities, such expensive transfers are more like a desire to simply make a status acquisition. Just buying for the sake of buying. There is no more sense in this than in an attempt by a wealthy farmer to surprise fellow villagers with Rolexes.

Now it would make sense for Zenith to set aside money for Malcolm until better times. The removal of Russian clubs from European competition will end sooner or later. Then there will be much more logic in a powerful transfer campaign, and it is much easier to invite a top player to Russia in this situation.