The end of the season is going to be a tight one, good luck!
Russian To The Top?
An average footballers attempt to be an above average manager.
- POSTS256
- VIEWS74723
- FOLLOWERS7
Is it too early to sing "WE ARE GOING UP!"
Foy - Yeah, those draws really hurt us, even if we could have turned one into a win, we'd have a little breathing room.
Live - lets not get ahead of ourselves
Beany - Thanks mate, looks like going right down to the wire!
MG - Yes!
Live - lets not get ahead of ourselves
Beany - Thanks mate, looks like going right down to the wire!
MG - Yes!
The Winter Break
First off the bat was to reassess our goals for the season. Once again, I decided not to be too ambitious & selected a mid table finish.
There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly, I didn't want to put too much pressure on the lads &, secondly, I remember how we ended last season. If anything, the league is even tighter this year so a few bad results could see us slide down the table drastically.
Youth Intake
That time of year again, the time to cross your fingers & hope for something special. So, how did we do?
Very hit & miss I'm afraid. In truth, mostly miss. Only the one player seems to have the potential to play any kind of part in the first team moving forward, defender, Rudolph Lopatin.
As you can see, Rudolf is already a fairly well developed defender, who at 16, has plenty of time to grow & develop. I will most likely be attempting to find a rather determined individual to tutor him as his only real fault tends to be his attitude rather then his skill set.
Unfortunately, although I am obviously pleased to welcome such a gifted youngster into the side, it appears that's about all I can take from this years trials.
Transfers
I thought we needed to be a little more pro-active this January if we were to maintain our promotion challenge. I started by cutting out some dead weight, releasing anyone who had failed to contribute to our season thus far & targeting players who I believed to be improvements on what we already had. Pretty simple really.
In all, we said goodbye to 4 players whilst bringing in 3. Here are the new faces.
Sederov is bought in as a long term replacement for the dangerous, but injury prone, Kirillov, at left wing. Costing us 125K from Slavia Sofia, he reporesents our biggest outlay but will hopefully pay us back with some crucial goals.
Yury Bavin is a young guy I looked at when Zenit-2 went down at the end of last year, before deciding to keep faith in our own youngster, Maxim Mashnev. Its not that Maxim has been bad, just that I believe Yury to be better, not only at the moment but in the future as well.
Our final signing was 27 year old centre back, Igor Klimov. I had long been on the hunt for an improvement on Roman Tschuk as my left sided central defender & Igor most definitely fits the bill. Paired with either Basel Abdulfattah or Aidar Lisinkov, he should provide us with a solid defensive base from which to build. That's the plan in any case.
Warm Up Results & Schedule
I decided on a fairly light lead up to the resumption of competition, preferring to try to keep the guys fresh for the final assault. The downside may be that a few of the guys are short of a gallop initially but I'm hoping it pays off in the end.
Just the 3 friendlies then, which we managed to win with an 8-0 aggregate. The guys look ready to go & our new signings appear to have settled well. All that's left is to get stuck in & see what we can do, starting with an away trip to SKA Khabarovsk, as always, wish us luck!
Some good looking signings and solid results in the friendly's good luck
1
Cant wait for the season to resume, some good signings and some good results!
Decent youth player coming in there, I hope he turns into a first team player for you
Ninja - Thanks mate
MG & Justice - Strap yourselves in, its going to be a bumpy ride!
Griffo - Yeah he looks pretty decent, think he'll have a role to play.
Cheers guys!
MG & Justice - Strap yourselves in, its going to be a bumpy ride!
Griffo - Yeah he looks pretty decent, think he'll have a role to play.
Cheers guys!
Match of the Month
The first half of this game was an absolute bore-fest, literally nothing of consequence happened! It was like both sides were still on holidays!
Thankfully, after a gentle reminder that this game was actually for points which could very much be the difference between promotion & first division obscurity, the boys sprung into life to begin the second half.
Kirillov struck in the 53rd minute, with his 8th goal of an injury riddled campaign, before an own goal from a similar situation, just minutes later, put us 2 goals to the good inside the hour mark &, despite Khabarovsk showing signs of life late in the game, that was enough for us to return to competition in winning fashion. 2-0 it finishes.
March Results
So, 2 wins either side of a loss to an underperforming, yet still dangerous, Amkar side, not the perfect start but definitely better than what we produced this time last year &, more importantly, keeps us in the hunt for automatic promotion.
Table
So, just the one slip up see's us slip to 3rd as the race for promotion becomes more like a game of musical chairs. Terek still sit top, though have obviously faultered, while Volgar take over in 2nd & close the gap to the top to just 1 point. Amazingly, just 3 points seperates the potential champions with missing the playoffs!
Stats
Awards
Azamat Gonezkukov takes up his customary position in midfield for the team of the month, I believe they just leave his name there now to save time, & is joined, for the first time I think?, by playmaker, Vitaliy Ryabushko, who, in truth, has been good all year.
Player Movement
This is a real concern! To be honest, I'd completely forgotten that I'd left all potential transfer offers for our players in the hands of the ownership group. Up until this point it hadn't been an issue but Vadym Leschuk, despite becoming back up for the in form Yury Lebedev recently, had been one of our top performers since his arrival & the pittance we received for his services has me a tad worried about the mental health of our chairman! Not to mention that the registration window is now closed so he is impossible to replace! Deary me.
April Preview
April may well be the defining month of our push for promotion, with all important games against top of the table, Terek, & 4th placed side, Torpedo Moscow, wrapping things up.
Those games could go a long way to deciding our fate but, before that, we'll have to get the job done against Armavir, Dzerzhinsk & Yenisey, all tough opposition, or else our campaign could be ended prematurely. Its crunch time!
Still within touching distance of that title mate, if you can just remove those defeats from your game, its yours for the taking!
1
You are reading "Russian To The Top?".