Football Season Guide

Lokomotiv Moscow had a real Jekyll-and-Hyde season last year as they were among the very worst in the autumn as the clueless Josef Zinnbauer led them to the relegation zone at the halfway stage. However, Mikhail Galaktionov proved an inspired choice as a replacement as he oversaw an immediate and stark improvement in results and performances to the point that Loko were pretty much the best and most consistent side in the league from March onwards. Now comes the real challenge for Galaktionov as he needs to manage the expectations of the fanbase after averting disaster when taking over and will have to use the momentum generated while being prepared to face terms more attuned to the threat that Loko bring. Yet, the Railwaymen seem well-placed to keep up with the pace set earlier in the year as the likes of Maksim Glushenkov, Sergey Pinyaev, Anton Miranchuk and Rifat Zhemaletdinov all provide flexibility, goal threat and movement in positions around veteran striker Artem Dzyuba, who did not show any sort of decline despite his advanced age. The more pressing questions for Gakaltionov are in defence as he does not have that many options there and will hope to get another quality and reliable centre-back, with German Conti quite often injured and the other options quite young. They need some additions there while the arrivals of Vladislav Sarveli and Ilya Samoshnikov are a good start of the window as they are quality players who should contribute to the squad quite a lot. Thus, the ingredients are there for Loko to have an excellent campaign overall as long as they keep up the good work.