Lokomotiv came to a standstill: five defeats in a row can cost the RPL

The management of Loko dismissed head coach Zinnbauer and sports director Zorn. MK is trying to figure out how to save a football club that is on the verge of disaster.

On the railway there is one very important device for traffic safety. It’s called “catching a dead end”. Such a dead end is arranged at the end of a long descent, in front of the station, in order to prevent the rolling stock that has lost control of the brakes from entering the station and to avoid unnecessary destruction.

On the evening of September 8, after a crushing defeat from Sochi with a score of 0:4, the Lokomotiv management was forced to send the head coach of the German team Josef Zinnbauer and the sports director of the German Thomas Zorn to a “catching dead end”. This defeat was the fifth in a row for the railroad, and a long descent began to resemble an uncontrolled fall – 14th place in the standings.

So much has been said about the critical position of Lokomotiv lately that one could only be surprised at the patience and endurance of the team’s board of directors. Perhaps such drastic measures should have been taken earlier. All the interlocutors of MK, with whom we discussed the Russian Premier League recently, spoke in plain text about the catastrophic situation in Lokomotiv. But better late than never. Now there are several pressing issues on the agenda.

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After the departure of Zinnbauer and Zorn, the fate of several more foreign members of the team’s coaching staff may be in question. These are South African assistant coach Davids Fadlu, whose appointment “MK” wrote on September 27, Austrian physiotherapist Martin Hammerle, Spanish physiotherapist Juan Alberto Pinar, team leader Russian Eduard Schnorr, goalkeeping coach, Austrian Sasha Mart.

Possible reshuffles in the coaching staff may be due to the fact that after the departure of the leaders of the “German bloc”, the “team” of the current general director of the club, Vladimir Leonchenko, will have carte blanche for at least the next two to three months. It is necessary to act decisively, given the deplorable standings of Lokomotiv. The remaining five rounds before the break will not be easy. And possible organizational conclusions will be adopted by the Board of Directors, headed by Alexander Plutnik, based on their results.

Many of the most authoritative experts are predicting for the post of head coach of Loko Yuri Pavlovich Semin, whose merits are too obvious to be listed in this article. The fans will also be happy with Palych, and their opinion must also be taken into account in the current situation.

In addition to Semin, the names of Loskov, Yuran and Marko Nikolic are heard in the media. As for the Serb, who won the Russian Cup with Loko, not so long ago his agent Dejan Joksimovich said in an interview with RB-Sport: “Marko will definitely return to Russia, where he did not do everything he would like. But when this will happen is not yet known.

According to MK, the most likely candidate for the post of head coach is Andrei Talalaev, who recently left Akhmat. Many years of experience in coaching, and the manner of managing teams, as well as quite good relations with Vladimir Leonchenko, speak in his favor.

At the same time, for half-measures in the form of appointment and.about. The club management may not have a head coach. Before the break associated with the World Cup in Qatar, as we have already said, there are only five rounds left, in which the railway workers will face CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, Ural and Torpedo. And if at least one of these meetings ends not in favor of Lokomotiv, then in the spring in the remaining 13 rounds the situation may turn out to be quite deplorable – the struggle “for a place under the financially prosperous RPL sun” will go to death.

As a child, among other poems, I really liked the story about an absent-minded Leningrader, where there are such lines:

“… He ran to the platform,
Climb into the uncoupled wagon,
He brought bundles and suitcases,
Scattered them under the sofas,
Sat in the corner in front of the window
And fell asleep peacefully … “

How the story of this citizen ended, everyone knows very well. And if Lokomotiv does not wake up, then instead of Bologoy or Popovka, he may well end up in the first division next season. And that would indeed be a disaster.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28886 dated October 10, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Lokomotiv at an impasse