For Jorge Carrascal, this season is already his third in Russia. Last summer, the technical midfielder replaced CSKA with Dynamo in the hope of regaining his status as a player in the main team of the MIR RPL team.

So far it’s been so-so: in most cases, Jorge starts matches on the bench. He has still not been able to show any results in the championship. At the same time, the player himself does not see a problem in himself and is sure that he was treated unfairly at the previous club.

Resentment towards Fedotov

The first concerns regarding Carrascal at CSKA appeared last summer, immediately after the appointment of Vladimir Fedotov. These two clearly did not pass the compatibility test: one has the image of a typical Latin American goofball, the other has the image of a classic Soviet ensign. If the word “discipline” made Jorge shake, then for Fedotov the strict fulfillment of his tasks is a prerequisite for working together.

Before the start of the season, everything was verbally in order. The coach admired the technical equipment of the Colombian, and Jorge himself promised to improve his game without the ball and participate in defensive actions. The idyll did not last long: only at the start of the last championship did Carrascal bring real benefits to Fedotov’s team (5+3 in 9 matches), but already in the fall a black cat ran between them. In the spring, the main dribbler of the RPL received a minimum of time on the field, and in the summer he left the team.

Vladimir Fedotov and Jorge Carrascal / Photo: © PFC CSKA

The reasons for Carrascal’s departure were obvious: the player simply did not fit into Fedotov’s football. Jorge remained silent for a long time, but eventually told his version in an interview with Championship. The name of the head coach was not mentioned in his answer about the reasons for leaving CSKA, but it is already clear who the player had in mind.

— I didn’t play for personal reasons, because of some people in the club. The same thing happened to Jesus [Мединой]. That’s why we decided to leave. We have a good relationship with the sports director – no problems! They understood that I was unhappy with my position on the team and that in the current situation it was better for me to leave. I wanted a change of scenery and made this decision. There were disagreements with only one person. There was nothing like that with the players and staff,” Carrascal said.

By “one person,” obviously, Fedotov is meant. The Colombian’s performances at Dynamo prove that the army coach was right.

“Rolls and doesn’t get up off his ass”

Fedotov is usually perceived as a stern man who does not know how to get along with real creators. This thesis is easily countered by the successful experience of working with Christian Noboa, who was assigned the role of a free artist in Sochi. Now, in terms of football creativity, no one limits Abbos Faizullaev. In the case of Carrascal, the reasons lie in the player himself. Oleg Fomenko, Fedotov’s assistant at CSKA, recently explained in detail what did not suit the coaching staff:

— There are requirements for the training process. There are two options: you either do them or you don’t. When does the problem occur? When you demand from a football player that he does his job. Carrascal did not fulfill the requirements that the coaching staff made in the training process and on the field, Fomenko noted on the air of the show “This is football, brother!”

Jorge Carrascal / Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

It seemed that the move to Dynamo was supposed to help Carrascal. Marcel Licka at Orenburg demonstrated the ability to find keys to the South Americans. The absence of strict frameworks for creatives and a coach who knows Spanish – with such data Jorge should have flourished, but so far nothing similar has been seen.

Carrascal never managed to become a starter for Dynamo in the first round; he does not have a single effective action to his name. Licka prefers to use Ngamale or Bitello in his position, and Jorge has to be content with 20 minutes at the end of matches. In RPL matches, he appeared in the starting lineup only three times, and, remarkably, Dynamo lost all of these matches.

Carrascal not only does not help Dynamo, but sometimes even outright harms it. In this sense, the episode in the game with Paris NN is indicative, when the Colombian launched another adventurous dribble, which ended in a loss and a scoring counterattack on Shunin’s goal. As a result, Dynamo lost two points in the end.

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The same Fomenko makes a disappointing diagnosis for the former army man:

– Even at Dynamo there were games when he rolled and didn’t get up off his butt. It just turns off in episodes. We said: “Jorge, you can play football, but only when you are completely focused on the game.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long. He ran the first five rounds last season because he passed the training camp. If it turns off, that’s it. And the whole team suffers. This is unacceptable,” says the CSKA coach.

Lichka promises to prepare a “completely different” Carrascal

Immediately after the transfer to Dynamo, it was not clear who lost more from this deal: the Blue and Whites, who made a risky bet, or the Army team, who released the talented footballer. Three months later there was much more clarity. CSKA managed to shed ballast in the form of an expensive contract, and invested the money received in a not so capricious South American. Victor Davila has 3+1 in 8 matches, scoring on average once every 71 minutes. Carrascal’s statistics are quite sad – 0+0 in 290 minutes.

Jorge claims that in the summer he had several offers from South America, in particular from Brazilian clubs, but he chose to stay in Moscow. It’s hard to be surprised by this choice, because in terms of money, compared to CSKA, he even won. According to Metaratings.ru, his salary increased from 1.1 million euros to 1.75 million. The generosity of Dynamo, which also signed the player for four years at once, is amazing.

Marcel Licka, Jorge Carrascal and Pavel Pivovarov / Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV

One of the highest paid players on the team after the first round has only a 20th rating, according to Whoscored (6.38). At the same time, Lichka is not yet embarrassed by Carrascal’s weak performance. The coach is confident that after the winter training camp, the team will receive real reinforcement in the person of Jorge:

– It is very important to understand why this happens. For three or four months he was not the main player in the Red-Blues. After joining us, he flew to training camp with the Colombian national team. Such long journeys occurred several times. Therefore, I am sure that after full winter training you will see a completely different Jorge. When it comes to handling the ball, he is one of the best football players in the RPL,” RT quotes Lichka as saying.

Absences from the national team really bother Carrascal, who after long flights (it takes more than a day to get there with several transfers) becomes virtually unavailable to play in the next round. This happened in September, when he came out for the last 10 minutes and made a catch, after the October trip he had to miss the meeting with Loko.

It is surprising that, despite the disastrous performance in the RPL, the head coach of the Colombian national team does not forget about Carrascal. Last night, Jorge was in the starting lineup for the game against Brazil and helped his team win. It turns out that the Dynamo player is not so hopeless. It remains to prove this on Russian fields.