Tours are full – Newspaper Kommersant No. 37 (7482) dated 03/03/2023

Resuming today after an almost four-month break with the Fakel match with Khimki, the Russian Championship has a few interesting intrigues in store for the remaining damn dozen rounds. One of them is connected with what promises to be a fairly tight race for medals, although it is unlikely for gold: it is hard to imagine that Zenit, which already has a lead, will miss the fifth title in a row. The other one is about the struggle for survival in the Premier League, in which Lokomotiv, which survived in the winter, in fact, radically reformatted, also participates.

A look at the table of the Russian championship, which since mid-November last year, that is, from the moment when he went on one of the longest winter breaks in its history, has been in a mothballed state, should, apparently, pleasantly surprise a person who has already managed to forget her for four months. Well, yes, there is someone to fight for in those 13 rounds that appear in the spring calendar. Even the “gold race” seems to be in full swing. “Zenith” is in the lead, but the gap does not seem quite gigantic, guaranteeing a quiet life at the top. Spartak is six points behind, Rostov is seven. In theory, three or four rounds – and everything in this niche can turn upside down.

But in the case of the “gold race”, such thoughts, most likely, still do not fit well with reality. The list of arguments in favor of the fact that Zenit will not lose the reserve should clearly include not only the obvious, at least by domestic standards, the power of this club, the quality of its bench, which did not suffer much due to Dejan’s departure to Lyon Lovren, and who will definitely not be harmed by the granting of Russian citizenship to Malcolm and Claudinho, but also, for example, by some details of his previous ups and downs. In all previous championships, which brought titles to St. Petersburg, they demonstrated, among other things, the ability to properly spend the winter period, without official matches, adding in the spring.

Four years ago, before the break, Zenit looked like a shaky team, made a whole series of very painful misfires. After that, in 13 rounds, he made three draws and suffered one defeat. In 2020, there were no defeats in 11 matches at all. In 2021, while the main competitors were terribly shaking in the spring (CSKA managed to fall from second place to sixth), Zenit was exceptionally stable, losing nine points in 11 rounds. Finally, last season, in 12 meetings, he scored 29 points, and the only Zenit loss in this segment happened in the final round, in a match against Nizhny Novgorod with the status, in fact, of a friendly: the Zenit players have long secured their next title.

But with silver and bronze, of course, everything is much more complicated. The handicap that Spartak has before the restart against the background of Rostov is completely ephemeral, and not so far behind the tandem is a group of clubs about which there is a feeling that in the fall they were not as productive as their potential suggests. First of all, we are talking about Dynamo, CSKA, Krasnodar.

At the same time, a good reason to confidently bet on Spartak in this fight – even leaving aside his good game in recent control meetings and the starting round of the Fonbet play-offs of the Russian Cup – lies at hand. For 13 rounds, he has only five trips. And in fact, with all the teams that look like dangerous competitors – Dynamo, Krasnodar, Rostov, CSKA – he plays at home. The exception is Zenit: with him, Spartak will have to fight in St. Petersburg. But this circumstance does not spoil the overall picture too much. At the same time, for example, the Rostov schedule is much less favorable: it has six home matches.

This championship of Russia is also distinguished by the fact that it will have a reason to closely monitor the showdown in the basement niche, and the fact that before it did not care at all which of the notorious outsiders would leave the top division and who would be able to survive. It’s all about the presence of Lokomotiv in this niche, which, due to the autumn crisis, found itself in an insanely difficult position without any reservations. The railway workers, together with Fakel, are in the play-off zone, and the relegation zone is right behind them: Khimki, 15th, is behind in a point. At the same time, in order to insure against a decrease in the class, you need to try. The 12th position belongs to Pari Nizhny Novgorod, and it has six points more than the Moscow-Voronezh couple.

And the intrigue in the question of the fate of Lokomotiv is added by the fact that, unlike other clubs, in the winter it decided not to make standard cosmetic adjustments, but to almost radically transform its appearance. Changes have taken place at all levels. Compared to the troubled Lokomotiv-2022, Lokomotiv-2023 has a new top manager – sports director Dmitry Ulyanov, a new coach – Mikhail Galaktionov, who came from Pari Nizhny Novgorod, and a half-new basis, in which, instead of Mark Mampassi, Girano Kerka, Tina Yedvaya, Pedrinho – Sergey Pinyaev, Maxim Glushenkov, Herman Conti, Ilya Lantratov, as well as 34-year-old Igor Smolnikov and Artem Dzyuba, whose age is a direct indication of at least temporary, in the name of saving the brand, the refusal quite officially announced strategy with a focus on youth. Meanwhile, the prospects for a rescue operation should be recognized as unclear. In any case, in the cup matches with Spartak, the reformatted Lokomotiv, whatever one may say, did not look equal to the club from the top three.

Alexey Dospekhov