German charlatans and sluggish Brazilians: Andrei Kobelev summed up the results of the 10th round of the RPL

– The tenth round is over, one third of the championship has passed. What is your impression of this third of our national tournament?

– The most important thing is that the teams began to score more goals. A rare match is boring. But I would not say that this is a consequence of the skill of the strikers in most teams. This is a weak defensive game. There are practically no good defenders who can fight one on one with the attackers.

I will also single out the leadership of Zenit. They confirm their level. If something extraordinary does not happen this season, then the “zenith” will get to the gold medals.

CSKA, Krasnodar, to some extent Spartak and Dynamo can compete with Zenit. All those teams that competed with St. Petersburg last season. With the exception of Lokomotiv.

I don’t know what harmless word to call what is happening in Lokomotiv. Disgraceful is the easiest of these words.

– Indeed, in the first ten rounds, on average, more than three goals were scored per match. This hasn’t happened in our tournament for a long time. Yes, the defense is failing, but is it good for the fans?

– Of course, it’s good for the fans. But it still seems to me that in some matches high performance will gradually fade into the background. Because now the standings are clear to everyone. There are ten teams at the top and there are six teams that are most likely to “contend” for the four underdog spots – two teams for relegation and two teams for transitional matches. Therefore, after the September pause of the national team, and even more so in the spring part of the championship, everything will be subject to the result.

Dynamo – Zenit

– There were several very interesting matches in the tenth round. Dynamo lost to Zenit 0-2 at home. I’ll ask you a traditional question – lately it has been quite difficult to analyze the game of the “zenith”, because it is clear that the team is an order of magnitude stronger than all our other clubs. What did you, as a specialist, see interesting in this game?

– You correctly noticed. Zenit has very high-quality players in every position. In face-to-face confrontations, they are almost head and shoulders above their counterparts. Therefore, there are practically no simple losses for Zenit. Combination football, preached by the St. Petersburg Brazilians, sometimes confuses rivals.

In the match with Dynamo, the St. Petersburg team did not turn on their speed by one hundred percent. There was a sluggish game in which Zenit controlled the ball. Dynamo tried to put pressure in places, but they did not succeed. Their mistake in the 35th minute, which resulted in a goal, affected the game. And Zenit played this match at partial speeds before.

Another thing is that after all the beginning of the second half was for Dynamo. And before the removal of Fernandez, they looked good. Including in attack. Therefore, questions arise for the first half – I was sure that Dynamo would play more aggressively from the beginning of the match. They will try to control the ball, leaving Zenit without it. We have already seen that the Brazilians from St. Petersburg without the ball are starting to get nervous. They begin to express dissatisfaction with everyone in a row and their game goes wrong.

In my opinion, we still need to play more aggressive and closed football with fast attacks against Zenit. Because his defenders are not that fast. Therefore, it is necessary to quickly run out into free zones and each attack must be completed with a cross or a blow.

– Fernandez received two yellow cards and left Dynamo in the minority in the middle of the second half. He had a lot of unnecessary emotions in this match. Can a coach from the touchline manage the players who “bite the bit”, somehow bring them to their senses during the match?

– After the first card, the player himself must understand everything. And the coaching staff during the break should remind you – you are on yellow! Be careful, don’t hit your legs from behind, behave correctly. But in this case, it turned out to be a completely childish mistake. Fernandez did not have time to intercept and hit Dmitry Sergeev on the leg. They still teach at the children’s and youth school – if you do not have time to intercept, then you let the opponent take the ball at the feet and then try not to let him turn around. So this is a purely individual mistake of Fernandez. Perhaps he has not yet fully adapted to the Russian championship, and adaptation may be delayed. He arrived when the tournament was already underway. And in general, a large rotation took place at Dynamo already during this season. Now it is necessary to establish gaming connections.

– In addition to the nervousness of Fernandez, the weak game of Mathias Normann caught my eye. Could this whole situation with the exclusion from the Norwegian national team for his decision to play at Dynamo have affected him so much?

– Regarding the Norwegian team. Imagine a football player is going to play in Russia. And the head coach of the national team of his country calls him and says that he will no longer call him to the team.

Norman chose a contract that he was unlikely to be offered anywhere else. And this is his personal problem. As for the game, even after the cup match between Dynamo and Akhmat, when he was replaced in the middle of the first half due to an injury, I already said then that he overplayed the ball very much. And he tries to give an assist from his half of the field, he has a lot of shotguns. And not as good as Rostov, plays in the selection. It is difficult to say what the reason is – either psychologically undertuned, or not physically ready. But the first half with Zenit in his performance was simply ugly. I made an assist error, all the passes were almost inaccurate, in the selection almost always acted with fouls. The central zone sagged, even though he played together with Fomin. Norman played very poorly.

Spartak – Lokomotiv

– In the capital derby, Spartak hosted Lokomotiv and won with a minimum score of 1-0. Didn’t you have the feeling that Spartak scored a little?

– I don’t understand how Lokomotiv wants to play. It is clear that they want to play fast. One or two touches. They run powerfully. But they have too many marriages. Probably ninety percent. And awkward openings in the corners of the field. It was evident from yesterday’s match that they did not understand each other. And they begin to get angry at each other because of this.

In general, this Lokomotiv project is a mockery of the railway workers. As fans of the club, and those people who forged the glory of the club. Semin, Loskov, Pashinin – I will imagine their state when they see what these German charlatans are doing with their club.

And Spartak played its game. The only thing that could be noted is that this time Sobolev came out together with Nicholson. There was an understandable bet on the attack, as Loko’s defense makes mistakes in every match and gets balls into their own net.

The match was a success for Spartak, but I can’t say. that they showed a super high-quality game. There was speed and there was desire. But there were few coaching ideas that could be noted.

– Recently, more and more often we hear that Abaskal has improved the game of Spartak compared to the previous season. Or, compared to the previous season, any change will be an improvement for the red-whites now?

– I will say this – last season, the management of Spartak did not have enough patience. Such frequent changes of coaches do not have the best effect on the team. As for Abaskal, I still don’t see anything new for him to bring to Spartak’s game. To date, the red-whites are in the cohort of teams that will fight for second or third places. But no more. In order to understand what changes Abascal is making in the team, one has to live through the winter break, which will be long due to the World Cup in Qatar. See who’s coming in and who’s going out.

In addition, compared to CSKA and Krasnodar, who play intelligible football, Abascal changes his composition and tactics in almost every match. I do not think that such constant shirking will lead to success. Perhaps Spartak will take its fifth or sixth place this season.

Torpedo – CSKA

– Torpedo beat CSKA with a minimum score. How unexpected was this result for you and why did it end the way it did?

– Why? Because CSKA didn’t score, but Torpedo scored. But seriously, we must pay tribute to the “Torpedo”. The coaching staff chose the right game pattern. Defend with the whole squad and rely on quick counterattacks. And this plan worked.

From the first minutes, the army team took the ball under control, moved it a lot from one flank to the other. And they had moments. But, like Zenit and Dynamo, they did not turn on their speeds one hundred percent. They thought that this would be the way it would go, that they would score and win. And then they didn’t score once, missed the second time, and started rushing. Began to play sheds in the penalty area. And again they could score more than once. But when a team goes out unmobilized, especially for a match with an outsider, the game often turns like this – you lose.

CSKA forwards, especially Carrascal, love space. And the teams trying to play with the army team on a collision course, and come across this. And in this match, CSKA faced a well-built defense, when 9-10 people sat in the penalty area. When there were no free zones behind the backs of the players. which could be opened. So they had to drive the ball from flank to flank. Like in handball. In my opinion. in such games it is necessary to hit the goal as much as possible and to hang as much as possible into the penalty area. What is the point of moving the ball from flank to flank, only time is being killed, but it does not create problems for the goalkeeper. Any team that faces a heavy defense in our league is in trouble.

Rostov – Wings of the Soviets

– Rostov finishes a third of the championship in second place. How do you evaluate the work of Valery Georgievich Karpin? Due to what such a success?

– Honestly. double impression. At the stadium, I watched the game between Rostov and Torpedo in the eighth round. There “Rostov” went on foot. And only due to the referee’s mistake they beat Torpedo. When they put a penalty, which was not. And in the match with Spartak in the ninth round there was movement.

I can say for sure that Rostov is a coaching team. The same certain game combinations are constantly repeated. And it’s good that in addition to this scheme of actions, there is Utkin and Komlichenko, who score from set pieces. It is very important that the team gathers under the coach and the club management trusts Karpin. And buys him those players. which he needs today. However, in some matches they were frankly lucky. So there may still be crashes.

Russian team

– On September 19, the cycle of the national team begins. We will play with the national team of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek on September 24th. In your opinion, are these training camps and this match necessary in the current situation? Or would it be better to hold another round of the championship or play a few matches in the Russian Cup? After all, we are not going to the World Cup in Qatar and our clubs do not play in European competitions.

– Both the training camp and the matches of the national team are definitely needed! Because even though we are now excommunicated from international football, this situation will not last forever. The national team must exist, the guys must see each other, come, work out certain moments of the game. And the games must be played! So that we do not boil in our own juice. I fully welcome this. Kirghiz – good. Iran, other teams are also good. We need to look at what level some of our players and the team as a whole are.