Spartak fans always expect victories from the team. There is no such pressure in any other club in Russia. Places below the first are considered a failure. However, this past season should be an exception. «Spartak» took an important step towards future success.
Beautiful «red-white» autumn
The end of the championship for many fans of «Spartak» blocked all the joyful moments. The team missed the second place, flew out of the Russian Cup and looked very pale in the spring. This performance looks like a failure. The fault is not only the high expectations of the fans, but also the excellent first half of the season.In the fall, Spartak was doing just fine. Yes, we lost the Super Bowl. However, from the very first rounds, the club showed excellent football and gave results. Guillermo Abascal quickly put the “red-white” intelligible game. At the same time, the team managed with virtually no transfers.
Four major victories were obtained in the starting seven rounds. The players quickly learned the principles of the Spanish coach — they confused the opponents' defense, creating many chances. Until mid-September, the team was the leader in the RPL in terms of performance.
Defense, despite the loss of Gigot, looked decent. «Spartak» acted aggressively without the ball, the midfielders performed a colossal amount of work in defense, leaving the opponent without free space. Such redoubts could only be overcome by a very well-built attack, so the risky manner justified itself.
The active rotation of the composition also helped. Abascal correctly reacted to failures and quickly rebuilt, not allowing the team to fall into a crisis. For the winter break, Spartak left second. Intrigue was added by the departure of the championship leader “Zenith” in the Way of the regions of the Cup of Russia. The «Red-Whites» played an important role in this. . The attack periodically slipped, the defense failed. Probably, Abascal has not yet got used to the Russian realities and brought the players to the peak of their form too early. Already in March, the “red-whites” overtook the crisis — only one victory in seven matches.An indirect confirmation of poor preparation was injuries. Quincy Promes, Georgiy Jikia, Victor Mozes, Daniil Khlusevich missed several matches. This affected the quality of the game and seriously disrupted the rotation. Abascal tried to correct the situation by changing schemes, even switching to a hybrid arrangement with Zinkovsky's floating role.
Sometimes success came. However, the team did not find stability. Only a chaotic victory over CSKA in the derby sweetened the spring failure a little for the fans.
And nevertheless, the club should in no case begin to rush about and turn off the intended path. The team had an unsuccessful second part of the championship and must draw the appropriate conclusions. And not to change the coaching staff and reshape the composition. After all, it was these players who gave out a wonderful autumn. The Spaniard, of course, makes mistakes, but at the same time he shows a high level. At the beginning of the season, there was a staged game in attack, and high-quality defense. In addition, the specialist demonstrated a rare flexibility for the RPL.
A high-quality young squad and an excellent coach will develop together. The club must support Abascal. Otherwise, the “red-whites” will fall back into a permanent crisis. Then the fans can definitely forget about the trophies.
The opinion of the author may not correspond to the position of the editors