Corinthians offered St. Petersburg a dubious replacement for Yuri Alberto.
Summer transfer campaign “Zenith” is in full swing. Petersburgers parted ways with Artem Dzyuba, Magomed Ozdoev, Stanislav Kritsyuk. Unexpectedly for everyone, Yuri Alberto left the team, on whom the coaching staff seriously counted.
However, in Corinthians, where Alberto went, they decided not to spoil relations with Zenit and offered partners two players to replace the defector forward: goalkeeper Ivan Quaresma da Silva and winger Gustavo Mantua. And there are big questions for both players.
Instead of a top player, did the Petersburgers get “illiquid assets”?
Mantuan is a talented but injury-prone winger
A huge plus for Gustavo is playing in different positions. You can call it a generalist. Mantua’s usual role is as a left midfielder, but this season, for example, he plays as a right wingman in a three-back formation. Under coach Vitor Pereira, the Brazilian became a key player in Corinthians and won the love of fans – they are very sad because of his move to Russia.
A powerful kick is not about Gustavo, but his technique and football mind are well developed (thanks to futsal). Also, the winger has one of the best indicators among the players of his role in terms of the number of interceptions – an average of 4.2 per game.
However, Gustavo has a huge disadvantage – he is prone to injury. At the age of 21, he was operated on “crosses” three times: in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and on both legs. After the second such injury, he almost finished with football.
– For me, the second injury was worse, because I already knew everything about it. I didn’t want to go through it again, feel the same pain. I didn’t want to stay off the field for another eight months. I cried a lot, I think even more than the first time – my game started, everything started to work out. When such things happen at the peak of your career, you want to quit everything and shut yourself off from the world, Mantuan recalled.
As a human being, I would like the Brazilian to succeed in Russia, because it is not good to lie down on the operating table so often. To do this, Zenit should pay special attention to Gustavo’s recovery and workload so that his loan does not turn into a sick leave.
Ivan is a promising goalkeeper without practice
Mantua, though “crystal”, but prominent. But with his partner Ivan, things are worse. Now the goalkeeper sits tightly on the bench, because the main goalkeeper of Corinthians, 35-year-old Cassio, looks brilliant, plus he is a legend of the club. 25-year-old Ivan is the team’s third most important goalkeeper. He moved to Corinthians earlier this year and has only made one appearance in the Copa Libertadores and two in the Copa Brazil.
From the interesting about Ivan: in 2021, the South American media reported interest from Barcelona, which was looking for a replacement for the second goalkeeper of the Neto team. In the past, the main goalkeeper of the Brazilian youth team. He was also called to the main one, but it is unrealistic to win the competition from Alison and Ederson.
Will he become the first number in the “Zenith”? It is possible to win the competition with Mikhail Kerzhakov and Daniil Odoevsky, but the Petersburgers definitely need a bright goalkeeper who has gone through fire and water. For example, Ilya Lantratov from Khimki. And anyway, when was the last time a Brazilian played in the RPL at the gate? (Marinato Guilherme doesn’t count.) It’s strange to give a precious legionary place to a goalkeeper.
On paper, it seems that an “illiquid” has arrived in St. Petersburg. Let’s see how such an exchange will actually turn out for Zenit.
