The Golden Instinct: who will compete with Zenit in the fight for the RPL championship

The new season of the Russian Premier League starts on Friday with the CSKA – Baltika match. The reigning champion Zenit is once again approaching the tournament as the main favorite, but its advantage over its competitors no longer looks unconditional. The St. Petersburg team has noticeably strengthened in the summer, but the Super Bowl match showed that Sergei Semak's team is still far from optimal shape. Krasnodar and Spartak look like the main pursuers of the champion at the start of the season.

How Zenit prepared for the title defense

The reigning Russian champion, as befits his status, became the headliner of the summer transfer window, making the most expensive purchase in this transfer window among all RPL clubs.

From now on, Alexander Sobolev will compete for a place in the center of the St. Petersburg club's attack with 22-year—old Brazilian Felipe Augusto, for whom Zenit paid the Turkish Trabzonspor € 15 million. The Blues also strengthened the defense center by acquiring 27-year-old Colombian Kevin Andrade from Baltika for €3.5 million.

Defender Arsen Adamov and midfielder Yaroslav Mikhailov are among those who have left the St. Petersburg team. Both signed as free agents with clubs from the bottom of the RPL — Akhmat and Rostov, respectively. Mikhail Kerzhakov, who finished his playing career, became Zenit's goalkeeping coach, and midfielder Ilzat Akhmetov was left without a club after his contract with the blue-white-Blues expired.

Zenit scored four victories in six preseason matches — over Leningradets (4:0), Dynamo Makhachkala (2:0), Uzbek Neftchi (4:1) and Serbian Crvena Zvezda (3:1) — and drew twice, going 1 each.:1 in the second game against Dynamo and the Argentine Khimnasia.

Newcomer Augusto managed to score one goal each against Neftchi and Crvena. But his competitor in position, Sobolev, turned out to be twice as effective — with goals against Leningradets, Khimnasia, Neftchi and Crvena (from the penalty spot).

Before the start of the Russian Premier League, Zenit had already managed to hold its first official game — in the battle for the Russian Super Cup, St. Petersburg beat Spartak Moscow only in a penalty shootout (the main time of the match ended 1-1 thanks to Sobolev's goal from the penalty spot in the minutes added to the second half). And this match showed that Zenit is far from perfect, which means that its chances of defending the title in the upcoming season are absolutely not one hundred percent.

But who will force Sergey Semak's team to compete for the championship?

"We can fight for the highest places"

Baltika football player Ivan Belikov — about the preparations for the new season in the Russian Premier League, the team's composition, the workload at training camps, the World Cup and Lugansk's debut in the second league of the Russian Championship

Krasnodar — without Spertsyan, but with ambitions

After the failed operation to defend the championship title, the Bulls decided to make significant changes in the squad. The main event, of course, was the sale of not just the midfielder, but the captain and leader of the team, Eduard Spertsyan, for an impressive €21.9 million. But... not to Europe, as expected, but to Saudi Arabia, to the Al-Ahli club. Edo became a teammate of such famous European football players as Francisco Trinkau, Ivan Toney, Mary Demiral and his namesake Mendy, who once defended the gates of London Chelsea.

The matter was not limited to Spertsyan's departure alone. In the summer, Uruguayan defender Giovanni Gonzalez also left Krasnodar, who joined the Argentine River Plate, Nigerian winger Olakunle Olusegun, who became a kind of "compensation" for Ilya Vakhania and Daniil Utkin, as well as Brazilian winger Victor Sa, who signed a contract with Sao Paulo as a free agent. the agent.

There were many famous names among the newcomers to Krasnodar. The Bulls compensated for Spertsyan's departure by acquiring Christian, a 25-year-old Brazilian from Cruzeiro for €9.6 million. He is able to cover not only the center of the field, but also the right flank. Among the other newcomers, only Russians are among them: 28—year-old Dmitry Vorobyov was bought from Lokomotiv for €7.3 million to replace 33-year—old John Cordoba, Vakhania took Gonzalez's place, and 33—year-old Magomed Ozdoev, who previously played in the Greek, was added to the depth of the squad in the center of midfield, in addition to Utkin. Paoke. Both midfielders were signed by Krasnodar for free.

Before the start of the new RPL season, Krasnodar played four friendly matches on the fields of its academy: they beat PSK (5:1) and Vista 4-0 in the Krasnodar Territory derby, and also lost to Rostov (3:4) and drew with Baltika (1:1).

Of course, the departure of a player like Spertsyan is a huge loss for Krasnodar. But among the leaders in the team there are still goalkeeper Stanislav Agkatsev, midfielder Alexander Chernikov and the previously mentioned Colombian forward Cordoba, who played at the last World Cup.

But it is still unclear how Christian will manifest himself. If he does not play better than Spertsyan, Krasnodar is unlikely to take away the championship title from Zenit again. So far, the chances of gold are 20-30%.

Spartak is on an equal footing with the champion

It's a little easier to talk about red and white in the context of competition with Zenit in the fight for the championship. At least because Spartak has already played an official match with the Petersburgers — for the Russian Super Cup. And Spaniard Juan Carcedo's team could really have won this match, because they objectively looked better. Even Zenit players confirmed this after the game, in particular Alexander Sobolev, Vanya Drkusic and Igor Diveev. And the head coach of St. Petersburg, Sergey Semak, admitted that the quality of his team's game left much to be desired.

All this means not only that Zenit has something to improve, but also that Zenit as a whole does not look invulnerable. At least for now. And if the situation doesn't change much, Krasnodar and Spartak can take advantage of it.

In the transfer market, red and white work according to the principle "the main thing is quality, not quantity." There's only one newbie yet. But which one: 24-year-old Spanish defender Victor Parada, who transferred from Alaves for € 5 million. Parada is able to close both the center of defense and the left edge, where it has become even freer after the departure of Portuguese-Moldovan Oleg Ryabchuk, who, like strikers Theo Bongonda and Anton Zabolotny, is now without a club.

Before the game with Zenit, Spartak played four friendly matches: they beat their namesakes from Kostroma (1:0) and Krylia Sovetov (3:2), drew with Rubin Kazan (0:0) and lost to Lokomotiv (0:2).

In a single match against Zenit, Spartak players demonstrated decent football. But this alone will not be enough to fight for the championship during the season. It is also obtained in matches with unyielding representatives of the lower part of the table. But Spartak sometimes has problems with them. We estimate the chances of the red and white for the championship at 5-10%. But they definitely have to compete for a place in the top three.