Always in the center

(Photo: Almin )

Without Egor Titov, one of the few players in whose playing position it is difficult to imagine anyone else, Spartak was left for the first time in the last five years. A meniscus that “flew” during an ordinary training session, a trip to Germany to see Dr. Pfeiffer, famous in the sports world, and a ban on entering the field for at least a month took the Spartak dispatcher out of the game for a long time.

And all this had to happen just when Oleg Romantsev started a radical reconstruction of the team, and the red-white fans were in shock after four defeats in five matches of the Russian championship. Everyone believes and expects that Titov will soon return to the field and help his partners defend the championship title. After all, the head coach is still forming a renewed team around this player, who has been the obvious leader of Spartak for many years.

Fate
It’s amazing how smoothly Yegor’s career developed, without sudden changes or long periods of stagnation. At the age of 16, he was already a player of the Spartak double team, and at 20, he was already a member of the main team. The same one from 1996, which was called “kindergarten” and which, to the surprise of many, managed to return the gold medals lost to Spartak the season before.

To become a great football player, you need to feel like a professional as early as possible. Titov jokes: he finally realized that football would become his profession when he brought his mother his first “understudy” salary, a thick wad of three-ruble notes - three thousand, a very significant amount for the family. Childhood is like childhood, only I changed regular school early to sports school. In his senior year, Yegor failed miserably in almost all subjects: from the football arena in Sokolniki to school, after school back to the arena - there was no time left for lessons. The youth team player was only fifteen when Romantsev himself noticed him. He was about to take the teenager to the big Spartak, but Titov, heeding the advice of his coach Anatoly Korolev, decided to wait a year. “Anatoly Fedoseevich is like a second father to me,” says Yegor. “He always threatened: “If I get dizzy from success, I’ll tear it away right away.” He is still one of my main advisers.” Titov's star fever seemed to have passed, although he had every chance of catching it - success came very early: at the age of 22, Yegor was already recognized as the best football player in the country.

Nature
Titov is a typical positive hero. He builds his life as consistently as his football career. He got married and had a daughter at the beginning of this year (he found out about this when Spartak was at a training camp in Israel). Once, in response to my question: how much do you have to sacrifice for the sake of football, Yegor answered briefly: “Probably, everyone.”

Titov takes his rapid ascent calmly: “I don’t have the feeling that I’m doing something supernatural. I play as before, without any special leaps. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special. Only the opponents are stronger - when you play with “ "Real", "Ajax", "Inter", there is a feeling of confidence. Why be afraid of them, the same people are running around."

Of course, he has matured: for so many years now, the quality of the team’s play largely depends on him. However, he is the undisputed leader so far only in Spartak; in the national team, Titov has yet to rise to this level. Experts in their assessments have long stopped making allowances for Yegor’s youth and never tire of emphasizing that there are no visible obstacles to his further growth.

Style
Titov's manner delights not only fans, but also strict connoisseurs. When it comes to Yegor’s performance, his fans often use very pompous expressions. For example, these: “Titov is refined and graceful, like a fish under water; it’s unclear how he swims, but he moves quickly. Those who don’t have to look for their place on the field, he found it a long time ago.” Or: “The gaming intelligence allows him to simultaneously be in the thick of things and take in the entire scene with his gaze.” You can’t learn this, even by working yourself half to death in training, it’s from God.

Football intelligence is the most accurate characteristic of the talent of a Spartak dispatcher. I admire his assists, ability to organize attacks, change the rhythm and tempo of the game depending on the situation. In addition to all this, this season Titov has demonstrated serious productivity - 10 goals, the best result in the team in this championship.

Titov is sometimes accused that as a football player he does not behave courageously enough. Egor strongly disagrees with this assessment. “Look at the statistics,” he says, “the number of tackles I make is sometimes no less than that of another defender, and in terms of the number of duels won, I do not lag behind the leaders.” Indeed, Titov is an absolutely modern footballer, which means he is athletic and versatile. Another thing is that his task is creation, not destruction. But this is the style of Spartak as a whole.

Does Titov have any weaknesses? Without a doubt. As a combinational player to the core, he sometimes wilts if his partners do not provide him with proper support. For his team, Egor is like a barometer: if he is noticeable on the field, Spartak is clearly in order, if the look does not make him stand out from the crowd, something is wrong. The “musicality” and “flight” of Titov’s playing, in which much depends on inspiration and courage, also has a downside - a delicate instrument is easier to upset. Therefore, although Titov’s personal actions in Spartak’s recent disastrous matches did not cause any particular criticism, he bears even greater responsibility for the failures of this season than his partners.

TT system
For five years, Spartak captain Andrei Tikhonov has always appeared on the field to Titov’s left hand. Tikhonov is, first of all, speed and dribbling, due to which the left flank of Spartak, like cavalry lava, breaks holes in the opponent’s defense. Titov is the speed of thought, a player obliged to implement the strategic plans of the main command. The TT connection became more and more important for the team every year. The entire “red-white” design was largely based on its effectiveness.

Alas, the latest results of Spartak showed that this design is no longer strong enough. By all accounts, Andrei is spending the current season below his capabilities. This was the case last fall, when the tired Spartak team did not show their usual game and the team performed unsuccessfully in the Champions League. Romantsev, apparently, understands that such a situation, when the team is obviously doomed to failure if something breaks in the combination of the two “Ts”, is unacceptable.

Reformation more Spartan
Discussing serious changes in the team's composition, which have been taking place for two months now, from the very beginning of the pre-registration campaign in the top division, analysts have already broken many copies. The fact that the squad needed to be strengthened by the start of the European tournaments is obvious to everyone - the debate is about whether the risk that Oleg Romantsev took by starting modernization a few weeks before the start of the European Cups was too great. These fears are confirmed by losses in the Russian championship.

What is it about Spartak’s game that doesn’t suit Romantsev, what does he want to change? Any fan of the team is familiar with this feeling of bitterness: why this extra pass before entering the penalty area - a pass instead of a shot, an extra step before a shot. It would seem that that’s enough - four or five passes “to the wall”, and then go alone, put your head on the football block. Nine times out of ten this doesn't happen. Few people risk taking the initiative and responsibility for a blow that is not obvious, but unexpected for the opponent.

Apparently, this is why ex-Rigian Andrei Stolcers appeared in the team, because he can equally strengthen the right flank and play sharply in front. Andrey proved this with his debut scoring streak in recent matches. Defender from Cameroon Gerry-Christian Tchuyse, according to the coach's plan, due to his excellent physical characteristics, should give mobility to the defense and at the same time protect the “air” in the penalty area. Young Georgian Otar Khizaneishvili promises to become an excellent central defender. Two Brazilians appeared in the team - Alexandre and Marcao. No one has yet seen them in action, but, according to Spartak selectors and coaches, they are by no means the second-rate goods that have so far been supplied to Russian football from this country.

It may be difficult for new recruits to prove themselves right away, especially without a game organizer like Titov. But on the other hand, a pause in a leader’s career is a chance both for newly arrived recruits and for young Kalinichenko and Bezrodny. And when Egor returns, he won’t ruin the game.

Perspective
Although Titov’s contract with Spartak is valid for another two and a half years, it is possible that he will go abroad before it expires - not a single Russian coach is insured against the loss of leading players. Romantsev, however, claims that there can be no talk of selling Titov yet. But two years ago, Spartak completely unexpectedly lost Dmitry Alenichev, for whom the Italian Roma offered such money that neither the club nor the midfielder himself could refuse. Titov is considered the most expensive player in Russia; his value on the transfer market is estimated at approximately $10 million.

However, for Yegor, money, according to his own statement, is not the determining factor. He said more than once that you couldn’t lure him into a second-rate championship even with a super contract. Titov also doesn’t want to leave in order to join a middling team: “To die as a football player?” It’s true, before our eyes is the experience of former partners, their ordeal in Western clubs of not the highest rank.

But even a move to a famous club (and he will probably receive such offers, if he hasn’t already) for a player in Titov’s role is fraught with a certain danger. Egor is a designer, dispatcher, playmaker. A person who determines the style of the team, under which (as now in Spartak) its ranks are strengthened. It is unlikely that there will be a European club among the giants that will decide to build a game around a football player from Russia. So far there is only one example - the Spanish “Celta”, where Alexander Mostovoy is the premier, and not alone, but in conjunction with Valery Karpin. Most likely, Titov will have to fit into a new ensemble, the playing principles of which are far from Spartak’s. The need to adapt your style to new partners, to different football has often become a stumbling block for our masters. Not to mention language and other adaptation difficulties.

So, until Egor tries his hand at the West, the statement of Spartak coach Vyacheslav Grozny that the team’s central midfielder is one of the five best dispatchers in the Old World will remain his personal opinion. However, there is another way to prove these words - to truly shock the football world by winning high-profile victories in European cup tournaments together with Spartak.


Yegor Titov is always at the center of events, including in the comic pantomime that Spartak players sometimes play when they score a goal (Photo: Sport Express )