Russian Premier League. Tactical review. Matchday 5

Three central defenders in Rubin Kazan, poor run of Spartak Moscow, lack of conclusions from mistakes at Amkar Perm, and lack of attacking diversity for Dynamo Moscow, as well as Senijad Ibricic’s decisive appearance and Lacina Traore’s nice game – all in our tactical review of matchday 5 in the Russian Premier League.

CSKA Moscow – Rubin Kazan – 2:0

Both teams have started putting each other under pressure in the opposite half of the field since the beginning of the game. In order to contain CSKA attacking duo during the first half, Rubin used the three central defenders. In general, the Kazan club did succeed in neutralizing the forwards: the first goal of the game was scored after a long-range strike, and the second came after a counter-attack down the wing (these counter-attacks are becoming real plague for Rubin).

CSKA attacking creativity was entrusted to Alan Dzagoev, who had a limited amount of options: either to pass the ball to the flank for subsequent move upfront, or to pass it to the forwards for an inevitable duel.

CSKA wide players used somewhat different manners. Mark Gonzalez preferred to move ahead by himself as far as possible, while Sekou Oliseh was more assiduous in defense and as a result made less passes than his left-wing teammate did. However, he left Kirill Nababkin almost without work by countering Cristian Ansaldi toughly.

During the second half, when Rubin went forward, it was Sekou who started to have more chances for counter-attack, and eventually he gave the goalscoring pass from the flank to Seydou Doumbia.

Speaking about Doumbia, we should mention that Rubin high defensive line, which was also playing very close to their midfield, left the Ivorian with no space to accelerate. However, even when he had the chance, the trio of Rubin’s central defenders managed to help each other and stop the CSKA forward. As a result Tomas Necid had to perform a huge amount of work.

In general, Rubin’s defense has played a decent game, except for Oleg Kuzmin who had obvious problems with Mark Gonzalez, and except for the second half when convenient spaces began to occur again for CSKA in the holding midfield zone and down the flanks.

In the first half the attacks of the visiting team have unfolded through the center, with Bibras Natkho trying to make a well-targeted pass into the penalty area as soon as possible. However, there was always Sergey Ignashevich who has played a magnificent match with 24 interceptions.

Ansaldi has been dangerous on the flank surprising again with his dribbling and having never lost the ball to the opponent. On the opposite wing Oleg Kuzmin failed to support attack with the same level of efficiency. Vladimir Dyadyun battled well in general, but as we have already metioned Ignashevich just didn’t let the ball come to him.

During the second half Rubin central midfielders started playing down the wings, patriculatly counting on Gokdeniz Karadeniz who entered the field by then. From that moment their left flank became less creative than the right one, partly due to the skillful actions from Sekou and Nababkin. On the opposite wing Berezutski played less confidently, however, he had Karadeniz, not Lebedenko, as his opposition.

Interesting statistics:

CSKA won 59 percent of the aerial duels, while Rubin has 55 percent of the ground duels.

During the period from 30th to 45th minute the accuracy of CSKA passes was 88 percent and from 45th to 60th minute is was 71 percent.

Rubin, as well as Lokomotiv, have been holding the ball for the longest time this matchday (30 minutes).

CSKA made the least attacks this matchday (73) and the least passes into the penalty box (21).

CSKA committed the least losses of the ball (105).

Ignashevich made the most interceptions this matchday (24).

Krylia Sovetov Samara – FC Krasnodar – 0:0

Who would have thought before the beginning of the season, that we would see some tactically attractive battle in a game like this? And after all, if we compare it to the other matches of the first day and the matchday in general, this game was quite good for the connoisseurs of the «football chess». Samara’s young midfielders and Krasondar’s midfield lead by Alexander Kulchiy and Nikola Drincic have been slugging it out for 90 minutes, while the defensive lines of both teams have been quite persistent in trying to make up for the errors in the central zone.

However, we would not call it a battle of midfields. There weren’t quite so many duels in this match as in the other games, while, for example, the attacking moves were more numerous than in CSKA – Rubin game.

The home team attacked down the left wing, where Ognjen Vranjes wasn’t having the best of his games. However, this mostly consisted in his failure to support the attack actively, while Dmitry Molosh, on the contrary, was pushing upfront gladly.

The defensive lines of both teams had prepared themselves for that fact that they would have to contain three forwards, and have been playing quite narrowly. Only towards the end of the game there occurred several errors, which Sergey Kuznetsov and Igor Picusceac could use. It seems that these losses of concentration were caused by pure weariness. The rest of the time the defenders of both teams acted reliably – which can be proved by only 3 shots on both goals during the entire match.

The main acting characters of the game were Joazinho, Drincic, and Picusceac for the visitors, and Kuznetsov, Oleg Samsonov, and Vladimir Priyomov for the home team. Most dangerous attacks began on the flanks with subsequent passing inside. However, Samara’s half-backs have been unexpectedly reliable for their young age covering the holding midfield zone well, while Krasnodar as usual didn’t afford themselves a lot of errors.

However, each team lacked something of their own. Krylia had not enough shots on goal from their forwards rather than defenders (Nejc Pecnik – 0 shots, Dmitry Molosh – 4 shots), and Krasnodar lacked successful plays form Marcio Abreu who lost duels too often and made too many errors in his passes.

This game has lead me to reflect on the prospects of Krylia Sovetov midfield. After all, you never can tell, this may be the future of our national team in four or five years.

Interesting statistics:

Nikola Drincic was fouled most often by the opponents this matchday (5 times).

30 out of 77 Samara’s attacks have been made down the left wing.

Krasnodar was unable to shoot on goal for more than an hour after the game began.

80 percent of Sergey Kuznetsov’s dribbles were successful (8 out of 10).

Dmitry Molosh was good when he moved upfront, but he won only 33 percent of duels in defense.

Marcio Abreu won only 3 duels out of 16.

Terek Grozny – Dynamo Moscow – 0:0

This was a match that took us back to the issue of Dynamo’s stereotypical attacks. Terek did not only play narrowly in two lines in their own half, but also silenced up Dynamo’s long-range guns, Marko Lomic and Luke Wilkshire, with an active pressing, making it very diffiult for them to cross for Kevin Kuranyi. As a result, only 37 out of Dynamo’s 510 successful passes were made towards the German. Sending the ball into the penalty box through Alexander Samedov was also impossible, as he was reliably closed by Herve Zengue. Dynamo’s right winger has won only 2 duels in 93 minutes, although still making the most passes. However, out of 51 accurate passes 16 were made towards Wilkshire, 10 towards Adrian Ropotan, and 1 towards Kuranyi.

Nevertheless, the German forward has received the ball twice in dangerous positions, practically inside the opponents’ penalty area, but in both cases Kuranyi failed to find the goal with his shot.

Terek also managed to leave Igor Semshov without the ball – he was playing between the two narrow defensive lines and was in possession a little bit more often, than Andrey Karyaka, but very rarely nevertheless. Adlan Katsaev should take the credit for Semshov’s neutralization, as he won 75 percent of the duels during the match. His fellow partner Guy Essame was less successful in defensive actions.

In such a game, when most fight was taking place in the center of Terek’s half of the field, the majority of Dynamo attacks were aimed to use the spaces emerging behind the backs of Terek wide defenders and holding midfielders who were pushing forward to help overthrow the opposition’s defense. As a result, in the first half Tiui managed to perform some successful raids down the wing, making some efficient passes to Musawenkosi Mguni who had a very decent percentage of duels won for a forward (17 out of 34). In general, if Mguni eventually starts scoring, Terek will become a very dangerous team: they have learned to send the ball towards him without hesitation and quite accurately. Leandro Fernandez had a lot of problems with Mguni, and when it turned out on several occasions that the Zimbabwean has to be challenged by Vladimir Granat, the outcome of their duels could well be predicted beforehand.

Interesting statistics:

Dynamo made most accurate passes (510).

Terek is the only team to have played no corner kicks this matchday. However, they were the most often to get into offside (5 times).

Dynamo have won the least duels this matchday (83).

The Moscow-based club had the least successful dribbles this matchday (10 times).

Vladimir Granat made most accurate passes this matchday (90).

Mguni won most of his aerial duels this matchday (15). Though, he also gave away the ball most often (45 times).

Kuban Krasnodar – Rostov Rostov-on-Don – 2:0

Having conceded a quick goal, Rostov haven’t recovered until the second half, although even after that their attacks lacked pace and sharpness. The main events took place in the central zone where during the first half Rostov central midfielders have been accompanied by their wingers playing very narrowly.

Rostov attacks have been developing quite slowly and ingenuously during the whole game. As a consequence, they struggled in getting access to Kuban’s penalty area – Rostov simply did not have a player able to set up his partner for a goal with a nice pass. Therefore, they had to shoot from distance.

After the expulsion of Alexey Kozlov, Rostov has definitively taken the dominance, but as the game moved towards the final whistle the visitors consistently failed to invent anything more dangerous than their long-range shots.

I would make special mention about Kuban’s more successful use of the corners. The visitors weren’t so impressive in that, and it is not a coincidence that the second goal came into Rostov net after a corner.

It was quite clear that both teams would build their attacking manoeuvres mainly through their powerful forwards – Lacina Traore and Roman Adamov. While Traore played a decent match, winning the ball often and making six shots, Adamov was closed very tightly and in fact didn’t bring any benefit to his team.

Rostov defeat may be in many respects attributed to Isaac Okoronkwo who was responsible for both goalscorers and made too many mistakes even in simple situations.

Their wide defenders also made a lot of errors, particularly, when they joined the attack, leaving Kornel Salata and Okoronkwo alone in front of their box on several occasions. This was used by Kuban flanks who were especially dangerous in the first half playing high upfront, while in the second half they moved back closer to their defense.

Rostov wings were hopeless in the first half, but in the second half they started bringing more danger. Maxim Grigoriev and Edgaras Cesnauskis were active in the second half, successfully winning their duels and playing nearly on the same line with Adamov.

Interesting statistics:

Krasnodar team had the worst passing accuracy – only 67 percent of their passes have been well-placed.

Rostov made the most interceptions (98).

Lacina Traore made the most shots (6), of which 3 have been on goal.

The same Traore won the most duels (24).

Timofey Kalachev won 3 duels out of 11, while Dragan Blatnjak won 4. Could anyone have been surprised with their substitutions?

Most passes towards Roman Adamov (11) were made by… Rostov goalkeeper Dejan Radic!

Amkar Perm – Zenit St. Petersburg – 1:3

This was, perhaps, the least entertaining game of all: one could have well written a report about it based strictly on both teams’s previous matches. Even the goals were typical. Zenit’s first goal was a standard combination with a cross along the goal, their second goal was created by individual actions of Danny who easily moved inside the holding midfield zone from the wing, then into the penalty area and shooted, while the third goal was a pass from the flank into a free space in Amkar holding midfield zone with an easy penetration into the penalty area. Amkar goal was scored using a counter-attack down the area left unmarked by one of Zenit’s defenders...

This was the quintessence of all the strengths and weaknesses of both teams.

And some more questions. Would you be surprised to know that most Amkar attacks have been developing through Georgi Peev and Zahari Sirakov? And what about Radomir Djalovic losing 71 percent of his duels?

This whole bunch of predictabilities had only two remarkable facts. Firstly, it was quite unsuccessful game of Amkar defenders, which is easily explainable: for the most part of the game they had to cope with Zenit counterattacks, which are always dangerous, while Perm defenders aren’t used to defend running towards their own goal – they have usually meet the opponents in a positioned defense.

Secondly, Amkar did have some interesting attacks through Zenit’s holding midfield zone. In fact, it isn’t so surprising: Zenit’s holding midfielder Igor Denisov has a lot of work to do there by himself. But, anyway, for Amkar it is already an achievement to have their attacks developed otherwise than by «Sirakov-Peev-somebody else» pattern.

I wouldn’t want to be too critical, but Amkar’s game does not inspire much optimism. They are the only team in the league, whose game is the same each matchday without any changes. No conclusions are being drawn from previous mistakes and the problems in their game persist.

Interesting statistics:

Amkar players made the most dangerous passes (21).

Zenit committed most fouls this matchday (28).

Amkar’s Alexander Kolomeitsev made most accurate passes into the opponent’s penalty area (7).

Zenit’s Konstantin Zyryanov committed most fouls this matchday (6).

Amkar made 6 shots more than Zenit overall (17 vs. 11), but Zenit was twice more well-placed than Amkar (4 shots on goal vs. 8).

Amkar made 13 attacks down its left wing and 45 down its right wing.

Konstantin Zyryanov lost 10 out of 13 duels in attack, but made 4 dangerous passes.

Lokomotiv Moscow – Volga Nizhny Novgorod – 1:0

Despite the fact that the only goal of this game was quite a haphazard, I would like to add some corrections to what I have already said about both teams in my previous reviews.

Volga are still very dangerous on quick counter-attacks. On several occasions they created some really nice moments, but the problem with their holding midfielders still persists. The latter produce very inconsistent performances. Volga shows its best football, when the ball is intercepted after the opponent’s first attacking pass and the holding midfielders play preemptively. Plesan, Crosas, and Adzhindzhal still don’t feel themselves confident enough in a positioned defense, but when Volga take the ball away near the central line, they are able to launch very dangerous counter-attacks. However, in this game, especially at its beginning, the team from Nizhny Novgorod had problems in the holding midfield zone. Moreover, in this match Volga midfielders have failed to make their usual number of interceptions. Their right wing also didn’t act properly, and maybe we should wait for some new changes in their midfield ahead of the next game.

The culture of ball possession deserves to be mentioned separately: at Nizhny Novgorod it is of a top class, being a real feast for the eye.

Lokomotiv started on a merry note, taking advantage of Volga’s aforementioned errors in the holding midfield zone. The «railwaymen» have had several very dangerous attacks through the center, but soon the game was leveled. At the end of the first half, Loko began to use the area in front of the penalty box more actively, once again claiming the dominance on the pitch.

After the break Volga moved on to its favorite style of play, intercepting the ball high up in the center and unfurling quick attacks. But their activity simmered down after Senijad Ibricic entered the field – to become the hero of the match eventually. Loko made 12 of its total 21 shots after he came onto the pitch, the Bosnian himself has three shots, and during his 32 minutes he made only two bad passes. Moreover, his entry added pace to Lokomotiv game.

I would mention separately the improvement in the performance of Lokomotiv wide players as compared to the previous matches: their passes were more accurate and in general their game was much more intelligent.

Interesting statistics:

Volga had the shortest possession of the ball this matchday (18 minutes).

Lokomotiv performed the most attacks (107) and made the most shots (21).

Volga players made 5 shots (the least of all teams this matchday), of which only 1 shot was on goal.

Loko won the most corners (12).

Once again the opposition was losing the ball most often in duels with Taras Burlak (25 times).

Sychev won only 9 out of his 30 duels.

Anzhi Makhachkala – Spartak Moscow – 2:1

Well, that’s a difficult story... I’ll try to draw at least a bit out of it.

Spartak has huge problems in attack – mostly in positioned attack and mostly on the center.

Dzyuba and Ari together have won 4 duels, Alex has won 5. Those three have also made 1 accurate pass. But despite all this Welliton, McGeady (who was one of the best in this game), and Ari made 10 shots towards the goal. These were the figures, and now here’s the conclusion: if Spartak’s attack is based upon individual skills of its players, then it isn’t necessary – and I would even say it is detrimental – for them to be in possession of the ball for 60 percent of the time.

This season we have already seen how Spartak can win matches with its counter-attacks, but their history and status won’t allow them play as «the second team on the pitch» on a regular basis. Having said that, we must admit that a counter-attack is one of the best environments for the skilled Irishman and the rapid Brazilian.

Anzhi had no particular problems in defense, mostly – as we’ve already mentioned – due to the lack of consistence in Spartak attacks. However, to tell the truth, Anzhi’s attacking moves also weren’t very impressive.

Both goals were scored after crosses into the penalty area, which are Spartak’s long-standing problem – be it a cross during the play or from a set piece.

In general the teams did not please the spectators with some beautiful football. The home team lacked their appealing and effective midfield pressure we have already seen before. They were too inert and gentle – not in general, but in comparison with their previous games. However, Mbark Boussoufa’s game can be named as a positive moment. He is a player Anzhi had lacked when Holenda has been losing most of his duels.

Interesting statistics:

Spartak made the most passes into the opponent’s penalty box this matchday (48).

Aiden McGeady was once again the leader of the matchday by the number of successful dribbles (13 out of 18).

Anzhi’s Odil Akhmedov had an unimpressive match. Both his passing accuracy and his percentage of duels won equaled to 55 percent.

Anzhi’s Jucilei is the matchday’s unique player. All of his 50 passes were accurate, while only 20 of them have been directed to the closest teammate.

Spartak’s goalie Nikolay Zabolotny has made errors in half of his 8 passes.

Welliton lost 75 percent of his duels and failed to make a single successful dribble.

Spartak Nalchik – Tom Tomsk – 1:2

It seems like Valery Nepomnyashchy has finally found the way to make his team score. If your slow attacks and long-range shots don’t have any effect, you should try to find the back of the net with quick attacks and set pieces. In general, Tom looked much more up-to-date in these counter-attacks, whereas both teams played narrowly in midfield and it would be very hard to make way slowly through the center.

The home team was disappointing. They almost didn’t use their most promising attacking direction – through Sergey Pilipchuk and Leandro, while Tom’s Sergey Skoblyakov with Djordje Jokic and Alexander Kharitonov did not allow Spartak to make their way down their right wing. In the center Spartak’s Igor Portnyagin and Bogdan Milic have been doing well, fighting and winning a lot of balls, but they eventually struggled to make a shot on goal.

As it always happens, the fate of the game was decided by two rather quick goals from the visitors. After that they felt themselves quite comfortable in defense, especially when Nalchik’s attacks were going through the center, where Yan Tigorev played very well as the «destruction man».

Interesting statistics:

Spartak Nalchik won the most duels (133), which is 55 percent of their total number.

Tomsk gave the ball away to the opponents most often (148 times).

Spartak Nalchik players also made the most dribbles (36).

Tom commited the least fouls this matchday (12).

Yan Tigorev won the most duels on the ground (19).

by Eugeny Shevelev