For the first time in a long time, Petersburgers have a stable opponent. Intrigue is back in the Premier League?
Over the past five seasons, there have been five different vice-champions in the Russian Championship. After CSKA in 2017 and 2018, no one managed to maintain the status of the closest contender for the title. During this period, the struggle for the championship looked like this: there is a favorite “Zenith” and a group of opponents challenging him. In the last season, the most consistent of them was Dynamo. It seems that it will also be the main competitor of the St. Petersburg club in the new season. This means that the second power pole is returning to the Premier League.
It is believed that the team that is most impressively strengthening for the new season is better prepared to fight for new heights, for approaching the favorite status. But amplification is, by definition, change. And if strong changes are noted in a team that was in sight the previous season, then they do not necessarily make it stronger immediately. And in general – will make stronger. It often happens that the digestion of innovations takes time.
What if we reformulate? Let strengthening be considered the fullest possible preservation by a strong club of its strong qualities. When the leading player is re-signed for a new term, when the coach continues to work, when promising young people are retained and their place in the team is even more firmly guaranteed. And the incoming newcomers are not comparable, but obviously stronger than those who were already on the team. That’s when we have to say that the favorite of last season remains the favorite in the future.
If we evaluate all our noteworthy favorites by this criterion, then tomorrow the fight against Zenit “will be able to watch not only everyone.” Somewhere the changes are too large-scale: in Spartak there is a mysterious young coach and last year’s position in the table is too low to storm the prizes. The vice-champion of Sochi also parted ways with the coach, the guarantor of his playing stability, and is also preparing to part ways with the leaders in two key positions. This guarantor coach will face a new environment in CSKA and it’s not a fact that he will pull the army team to his own and their own five-year-old level.
Another group of favorites, who kept their coaches, on the contrary, still lacks visible gain. Do not consider the youth “Krasnodar” for the addition of the next arrival of Krychowiak. And Lokomotiv, which signed striker Rakognac back in the spring, did not seem to come to the summer market for shopping, and in addition, they parted ways with Kukhta.
The highest tenacity of all, holding the position of the contender, is shown by Dynamo. Yes, the coach has changed. But it is important that the sports director Buvac remained, and with him an uncompromising line on the European coach. After Schwartz, for the blue-and-whites, turning to the Russian school would have looked like a concession to difficult circumstances. They didn’t go for it. We made an adjustment for the current unfavorable wind, took a Serbian coach from a more solid age group, so that he was not too susceptible to his wife’s mood, for example.
The best young player of last season, Zakharyan, is in the team, and there is no clear talk about his imminent departure. And the most interesting thing is that, although in the same way there is no specifics regarding the probable parting with Shimansky and Moro, Dynamo looks like a club ready to replace these strongholds with lightning speed. This is precisely what persistent rumors about interest in Chernikov from Krasnodar and, especially, railroad worker Barinov indicate. Even refuted, these rumors point to the selection determination of Dynamo, which is ready to take players from direct competitors. Although already now, as one of the directors of the club, Dmitry Gafin, said, Dynamo has the most expensive “Russian backbone” in the Premier League.
New rumors about Denis Cheryshev. Moreover, Dynamo has Grulev, Zakharyan and Makarov, moreover, Lesovoy recovered. Dynamo are clearly not going to retreat or seriously rebuild after they could not withstand the tension of the championship race with Zenit and lost the cup to Spartak. This contract with Ovechkin they had for one match. And ambitions – for the whole season, in which they are already preparing to enter the role of a contender, and not become one in the course of events. That is, they should be better prepared for the pressure of a grueling run with Zenit, they already know better what to expect.
The champion, by the way, has exactly the same active personnel position. Yuri Alberto drops out – and is replaced not only quantitatively, by two newcomers from Corinthians, but also qualitatively, taking Cassierra from Sochi (and, even more difficult, from foreign competitors). And then there is Rodrigo. A strong central defender is needed even by Zenit and even in the absence of European competition. By inviting Bakaev, the champion shows that he is theoretically ready for the loss of Malcolm.
“Blue-white-blue” with “white-blue” clearly rise above everyone this summer – to the sky painted in their related colors. We will see the second round of their struggle with each other, for which the Muscovites who lost in the first season are thoroughly preparing. But the third force capable of intervening in their fight, such as last year’s Sochi, is not yet visible.
