Mikhail Gershkovich: Zenit is our favourite, but life won’t be easy

With all due respect to the heroic tread of Zenit, I’m sure there are chances for aggravation among the competitors of the team of Sergei Semak. This is very important for the “health” of our domestic championship. Among the competitors, first of all, I attribute the Moscow trio – Spartak, CSKA and Lokomotiv, with some stretch and reservations – Dynamo. “Krasnodar” and “Rostov” – right there, in the clip of contenders for high places. I do not think that in this respect the situation has changed significantly compared to last season.

And just at this cutoff, the first “but” is born. The real struggle with the undisputed champion will take place only if the group of competitors will be able to effectively work on strengthening the lineups. Perhaps we should put Lokomotiv out of brackets, which carried out intensive transfer work during the last season, with an eye to the future. Lokomotiv also, of course, will have to strengthen, but pointwise, focusing on the central defensive axis. Ahead, Mikhail Galaktionov has a very good choice: Sergey Pinyaev, Vladislav Sarveli, Artem Dziuba, Wilson Isidore, Anton Miranchuk, Maxim Glushenkov.

But the rest of the recognized tops over the past two months have practically not changed qualitatively. Transfer campaigns are based on the old football joke: “Look how the X team got stronger! – And who did you buy? – Nobody. But two were sold. It is clear that for Russian clubs the international market is now opening not windows, but a maximum of vents: the possibility of serious acquisitions is objectively limited. This is the reality, it’s not easy to drag serious performers to Russia. But they still exist, these opportunities. And the clubs have enough time – the summer transfer period ends on September 14th.

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Like it or not, Zenit is already a step or two ahead, because a well-thought-out, systematically built transfer policy is one of the main championship resources. Probably, the sale of Malcolm for some period will create difficulties associated with the restructuring of the game, but globally it will hardly affect the quality of Zenit football. Moreover, 60 million euros, compensation for Malcolm, is very decent money, allowing you to enter the market with serious interests. For example, the possible transfer of Eduard Spertsyan is a much more tangible loss for Krasnodar than Malcolm’s departure for Zenit.

Moreover, the policy of Zenit, pay attention, is aimed at both strengthening its own capabilities and blocking options for competitors. Hand on heart: do the champion really need Mario Fernandez and Strahinja Erakovich? With such and such people at the base and on the bench? Meanwhile, Fernandez’s mysterious option is one way or another an attack on CSKA, and Zenit calmly intercepted Erakovich from Spartak, which needs a qualified defender many times more. Intercepted – and thereby increased the threshold of strength, which is already quite high.

So Zenit is very firmly on its feet. He is as confident as possible in himself, and the point here, I repeat once again, is not only in financial capabilities. And even, most likely, not so much. Zenith is a perfectly tuned structure, a well-tuned mechanism. All its services work like clockwork. Waiting for (and if) Zenit to suddenly weaken, lose courage and play is a dead end. As professional billiard players say, you need to work with balls, and your opponent should be evaluated and respected. In other words, it is necessary to rely mainly on one’s own capabilities, to solve one’s problems, to build one’s plans, not trusting chance.

Returning to the potential of Dynamo, to the chances of the blue-and-whites to finally shoot – I specifically emphasize that they exist – I will note a very disturbing sign that is characteristic of this team. At the disposal of the coaching staff, no matter who has headed the blue and white recently, there is a whole scattering of young promising football players, but is it possible to say with certainty that the guys are growing and developing? I’m afraid, just the opposite – they are degrading. At best, they mark time.

In contrast, the example of the “Wings of the Soviets”, which have much more modest capabilities. The invariably high level of application rotation for the season is both the “cross” of Igor Osinkin’s team and its feature. Competent work with young people, which the domestic market regularly and with pleasure parses like hot cakes – I think that no one will compete with Samara in this regard in the RPL. And the start of the new season confirms the trend: “Wings” have already managed to present a couple of guys who you immediately pay attention to.

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I will express such a controversial thought at first glance. At the very least, debatable. Football, which we used to call attacking, is sweet honey for the fans. Both the past season and the debut of the new championship passed under this sign: creativity in the game of most RPL teams dominates order. At the same time, a wide audience is happy, and professionals grab their heads, fixing an exorbitant amount of marriage from tour to tour. Technical training, tactical, understanding of the game, the ability to soberly, competently assess the game situation – these are the fundamental principles of the game.

Bright, even reckless football is beautiful on the stretch. It is certainly pleasing to the eye. But practice proves a thousand times that big tournaments are won not by the one who scores more, but by the one who concedes less. That’s something to think about, that’s what you need to work on! Creativity is great, but any attacking action must be based on a solid defensive play. In other words, we are talking about the notorious balance, the search for which is the main meaning of a coach’s life.

And here is a narrower example illustrating the topic. Football in Russia is chronically suffering from a shortage of qualified central defenders. The generation of Ignashevich and the Berezutsky brothers, who, even at the time of their playing maturity, got a lot (and often unfairly) for mistakes and blots, is a bright memory against the background of the current personnel breakdown. Now a reliable central defender is a rarity, a godsend, a great success. Legionnaires of dubious quality, who are regularly brought to Russia, also, to put it mildly, do not help out.

It is understandable and generally fair: the responsibility for the result puts pressure on the coach and the management of the clubs, and it is impossible to cancel this factor. But what is more understandable and fairer – to seek, find and lose points at the expense of the “old men”, either our own or called up from abroad, or to fire promising young people in difficult battles, who tend to make mistakes simply because of their age? There are intelligent guys in the academy – give them the green light! Let them fill bumps, let them gain experience. On the circle then it will come out, there will be no less points. But prospects will open, and rather quickly. This approach is much more competent, if you look at the root of the problem. And the risks associated with the trust of talented young people will more than pay off in the near future.

But, judging by the first rounds of the new season, nothing like that: marriage, marriage and marriage again. The organization of the game in defense of the vast majority of teams, including potential applicants for the main title, does not stand up to criticism. If there is pressure, there will be gross, unforgivable mistakes. And since there are no serious problems with pressure in today’s RPL, blunders are born at every turn.

I think that a great help for working for the future is the new format of the Russian Cup. The Cup in its current form is a serious event. Well paid, full of games, chances, sports intrigues. Everyone has the opportunity to rotate the squads, pulling up interesting young people from the bench and forgiving them the inevitable mistakes.

Here, too, the judges would be subjected to a competent, fair rotation procedure in the name of a brighter future – in general, there would be a holiday! And justice in the projection on the eternal judicial question consists only in increasing responsibility for gross, sometimes fatal mistakes and nothing more. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here, everything has been invented before us …

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Football was created for the fans – how beaten, just as fair truth. Bright football, which I shot above, is just for them. For the real ones. For desperate, devoted, uncompromising. Unfortunately, uncompromising sometimes with a big inflection. This, of course, is about the notorious Fan ID, about the fan’s passport.

The coordinated position taken by the protesting fan movements in Russia is destructive. You can understand fans with your mind, but not with your heart. What is more important for a person who loves football with his heart – to spend 10 minutes of time on obtaining an admission in order to support his favorite team all season, or to portray resentment at the new rules that supposedly limit the freedom of the fan’s soul? Honestly, the answer seems so obvious that there is nothing to argue about.

The RFU did not invent these rules. Not a league. Not clubs. In general, this is not our know-how: many successful countries in terms of football have followed and continue to follow this path. I am sure that sooner or later the situation will change, and the mercy of the fans will replace the anger. So maybe sooner is better? Not only better for themselves, but, most importantly, for their idols, in whose name a true fan rejoices and suffers.

Now is the time to do it. Right now, when without guilt the guilty Russian football is going through difficult times in isolation.