Translated material
Sales growth
There is a demand for tall forwards in Russia
Russian clubs approached the opening of the transfer window thoroughly. On August 1, the first day when it was possible to register additional players, a line of team representatives should have lined up at the Football House wanting to register new acquisitions. Many of them brought documents for powerful tall forwards - ram-type forwards are more valuable than ever in Russia.Transfer. Not only in Russia, however. Pavel Pogrebnyak has become another Russian legionnaire of the newest wave. The forward of the Russian national team, who, however, was not the bronze medalist of the European Championship, was bought by Stuttgart from Zenit. The 188 cm tall player, according to Kicker, cost the German club 4.5 million euros. The relative modesty of the amount is explained by Pogrebnyak’s contract with Zenit expiring in six months. The St. Petersburg club offered its leader a new agreement on much better terms, but the striker chose to come into conflict with the club’s management and go to a foreign championship.
Now Zenit is forced to look for a new ram-type forward. However, Sergei Kornilenko (height - 185 cm) was bought from Tom, and the cost of the Belarusian striker, according to various estimates, amounted to up to $2 million. But most likely the St. Petersburg team will make another acquisition of the same plan.
I didn’t skimp in my search for a tall Terek forward. The Chechen club bought the Argentinean Hector Bracamonte (191 cm) from Moscow, and the 31-year-old player cost the Grozny residents approximately $3.5 million. The Citizens, in turn, are now showing interest in Spartak striker Artem Dzyuba (193 cm) . “Kuban” rented Nigerian Emmanuel Okoduwa (185 cm), belonging to Dynamo Kyiv. Krylia Sovetov borrowed Roman Adamov (187 cm) from Rubin, and Khimki signed a contract with Denis Popov (189 cm) until the end of the season... Surely the demand for textured forwards will only grow. Most Russian clubs have adopted an easily mastered scheme with one tall forward at the forefront, through a long pass to whom it is relatively easy to go from defense to attack.
Scandal. Zenit head coach Dick Advocaat, meanwhile, would like to see a worthy replacement for Pavel Pogrebnyak. What the Dutchman directly stated on the eve of the match with Saturn, entering into an open conflict with the club’s management. “I'm very angry and upset. For the first time in my life, a player is brought to me without my consent. I am the head coach and I know better what the team needs. I would like to buy Pandev and Guerrero, but instead we have Kornilenko and Rozin,” the Lawyer emotionally shared his experiences with reporters. The Dutchman directly stated that the new sports director Igor Korneev is to blame for this situation. “A man who works for about a week at our club does such things without my permission! This is incredible! Maybe they want to make Korneev the head coach? - the Lawyer was harsh, adding that he would not work with Korneev.
The management of Zenit has not yet responded to Advocaat’s demarche. It is unlikely that the club will decide to fire Korneev, with whom they have just signed a contract. Zenit is not ready to dismiss the Lawyer early. It’s not even a matter of compensation for the early termination of the agreement, which the Dutchman may be seeking with harsh statements. The club's management simply does not currently have a ready-made candidate to fill the position of head coach. Zenit needs a specialist with a name, otherwise the team will not be able to lure star European players to the team, which is what they so want in St. Petersburg.
The emotional shake-up in the leadership did not help Zenit. In Ramenskoye, the Advocaat team could not win against Saturn, although they were ahead in the score, had a numerical advantage at the end of the match, and one of the goals was scored by the same Kornilenko. But Nakhushev's stray shot from long range took away two points from the guests.
Debut. Not only the forwards made their debut in the last round. Dynamo presented their new midfielder Aguiar, who has been training with the team for a long time, but could only take the field after August 1. The Uruguayan's debut turned out to be worthy. In the match against Khimki, taking a position in the center of the field, Aguiar quite willingly joined the attacks and, demonstrating decent mutual understanding with his partners, opened the scoring. Alexander Kerzhakov, as has happened more than once this season, completed the job at the end of the match - 2:0.
In addition to Dynamo, Spartak also tried out the rookie in the center of the field. Having joined the Brazilian colony in Tarasovka, Ibson looked pretty decent in the match against Kuban. But it was not he who took the lead, but his compatriots: Alex opened the scoring in this meeting with a free-kick, and Welliton’s double brought him back to the top of the list of scorers with ten goals.
Tour phrase. “We have been given penalties for four games in a row, this is something not the same,” CSKA midfielder Alan Dzagoev, like his partners, is perplexed as to why the army team angered the referees so much. However, the 11-meter kick awarded against Akinev in Tomsk did not prevent CSKA from breaking the winless streak of four matches.
Results of the 16th round matches. "Lokomotiv" - "Rostov" - ?:?, "Saturn" - "Zenit" - 2:2 (Kirichenko 15 - from pen., Nakhushev 85 - Kornilenko 28, Shirokov 54) , "Khimki" - "Dynamo" - 0:2 (Aguiar 34, Kerzhakov 89) , "Amkar" - "Wings of the Soviets" - 2:0 (Kushev 20 - from pen., Jean Carlos 89) , "Rubin" - - "Spartak-Nalchik" - 2:0 (Karadeniz 37, Dominguez 89 - on pen.) , "Tom" - CSKA - 2:3 (Maznov 57, Michkov 67 - on pen. - Krasic 27 , Dzagoev 30, R. Jesus 64) , "Spartak" - "Kuban" - 4:0 (Alex 21, Welliton 53, 60, V. Bystrov 88) , "Terek" - "Moscow" - 1: 2 (Lakhiyalov 77 -- Vukic 61, Chesnauskis 74) .
Premier League
| 1. "Ruby" | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 29--12 | 31 |
| 2. Spartak M | 16 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 28--13 | 30 |
| 3. "Moscow" | 16 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 19--8 | 30 |
| 4. CSKA | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 25--16 | 27 |
| 5. Dynamo | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 19--17 | 27 |
| 6. Zenit | 16 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 24--17 | 24 |
| 7. "Lokomotiv" | 16 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 17--16 | 22 |
| 8. “Wings of the Soviets” | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 15--18 | 21 |
| 9. "Terek" | 16 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 19--22 | 21 |
| 10. "Saturn" | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 17--21 | 20 |
| 11. "Rostov" | 16 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 10--15 | 19 |
| 12. "Amkar" | 16 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 15--22 | 18 |
| 13. "Tom" | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 15--20 | 17 |
| 14. "Kuban" | 16 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 11--23 | 15 |
| 15. "Spartak" N | 16 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 11--17 | 11 |
| 16. Khimki | 16 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 13--30 | 10 |