“Time changes everything” is a famous saying that each of us has applied to ourselves or our surroundings at least once in our lives. But for Spartak over the past 15-20 years this principle has ceased to be relevant. From year to year the club goes through the same stages: euphoria, hope, disappointment, hysteria, leapfrog. Underline whatever applicable. And the new season is no exception. The bright and powerful start of the “red-whites” both in the RPL and in the Russian Cup was followed by many loud comments and premature words about the upcoming championship. As soon as the team stumbled and suffered a series of painful defeats, the gold medals were instantly torn from the necks of Spartak players and coaches and buried under the cross that was put on the club’s prospects.
An abundance of articles calling for further personnel changes in the coaching staff, a search for a variety of intrigues within the team, endless comments from supposed experts and people who consider themselves Spartak veterans, even if they spent less than a week in the “red-white” camp. Spartak players live with this every day. Other clubs can only be envious. Absolutely identical periodic failures of the same CSKA, Dynamo or Zenit do not cause a similar reaction. This is about the question of which club is the most popular in the country. True, such popularity is not always beneficial, and there is no constructiveness in constantly doing nothing but escalating it.
Guillermo Abascal, as expected, fell under the usual distribution to all of us and for some reason turned out to be too unpopular with the public. Defeats from Zenit, Krasnodar, Krylia Sovetov and Dynamo, coupled with the senseless hysteria that arose around, brought the head coach of Spartak to the door. As if the departure of the Spanish specialist would fundamentally change something for the better. History shows us only opposite examples. The players allegedly do not recognize the authority of the coach? So you need to ask them first of all. The easiest way is to say: “This coach is not suitable for us, bring a new one.” It is much more difficult for players to admit that they are first and foremost subordinates, as well as to find self-esteem and remember that they are professionals who must do their direct job. If a football player believes that Spartak is the limit in his career, and further development is not expected, then such an athlete is worthless.
In addition, the very fact of Abaskal’s appointment as Spartak’s coach carried with it the idea that he was a coach for the future. This means that he must be given the opportunity to perform his functions. Even if they grow into a constant rotation of the playing roster. This is also part of the job. If you agreed to the services of a young and little-known specialist, be prepared for his experiments and mistakes. You can't go anywhere without them. Unfortunately or fortunately for Abascal, today’s derby affected his fate in the Spartak structure. Matches against CSKA are the most important and fundamental for the “red-whites”, and any failure carries with it a powerful blow with an ax that cuts all ends.
And Spartak almost lost this battle today.
Until the end of the match, which was compensated for the main time, it seemed that everything would be decided by two accurate shots from Milan Gajic, who came to Moscow from Crvena Zvezda, the sister club of the red and whites. The Serbian successfully tested both top corners of Alexander Maksimenko's goal with cool shots from distance. In both cases, Gayich did not meet resistance from Daniil Denisov. Even the super-goal of Quincy Promes, who “combed” Igor Akinfeev’s nine possessions from the corner of the penalty area, faded into the background. But in the 97th minute, Jesus Medina, who throughout almost the entire game could not create a scoring chance, fired. One throw from Leon Claesson was enough for the Paraguayan to correct himself and at the same time upset his former club with a precise nod of his head.
What did we actually see? Everything that is typical for the derby between CSKA and Spartak: a large number of defects, the advantage of fighting over precise combinations, the danger from counterattacks rather than from positional attacks. This happens regularly in derby. But with regard to Spartak, it is expected that they will highlight drafts in the defense, problems in the center of the field and unclear actions at the opponent's goal.
But we also saw desire. In such matches it often comes to the fore and plays a decisive role. You can’t blame the players of both teams for anything, but for the attitude of the players. “Spartak” may have been helped by the support of fans: on the morning of the derby day, a group of active fans of the club, who were unable to get to the stadium, came to the team and conveyed all the necessary words to them. Perhaps this was also influenced by the players’ desire to show that the reason for their past failures was not lack of will, but elementary skill, in which mistakes are inevitable. No one is convinced that Spartak has assembled a championship squad? If so, then you need to think about this idea a little better.
Abascal's team has room to improve. And not only for the players, but also for the coach. And if “Spartak” really wants to achieve this, then there is no point in destroying everything at the foundation stage.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors.