Football Season Guide

After a not very impressive last season under supposedly two high-calibre managers, Akhmat opted for a different route in the summer and, after spending the last six seasons as an assistant coach at the club, Igor Ledyakhov was offered the managerial position and he will be making his first steps as the main man at the helm. Knowing the structure of the club very well, including all young prospects coming through from the junior teams, Ledyakhov has been very quiet on the transfer market so far and it seems Akhmat won’t be undergoing any dramatic changes to the their squad compared to last term. None of the few new arrivals seem destined for regular starts at least early in the campaign, while the two important foreign players (Jaba and Sampaio) that left the club were unsettled in Russia anyway and they didn’t make many appearances in the spring. It was exactly Ledyakhov that guided youngster Batsuev through to the senior squad last season and this suggests that the talented inner midfielder will be getting plenty of chances to develop this campaign. Akhmat seem happy to start the season using 4-4-2 as their main formation, but 4-2-3-1 is also on the cards for the Chechens, especially for their away games. With pretty much the entire starting XI expected to be made up of players that have been in the squad for several seasons now, the synchrony shouldn’t be an issue and Akhmat are one of the teams expected to hit the ground running from the early rounds. Despite having lots of attacking options, Ledyakhov is yet to settle on preferred choice up front, with all of Sadaev, Mbenge and Balaj likely to compete for just one starting spot. Ismael, Shvets and Ivanov make the midfield solid and as usual Akhmat look very likely to be enjoying the lion’s share of the possession. The general feel about Akhmat is good and, despite the inexperience of their new manager, the Chechens should be one of the more dangerous teams in the opening few months of the campaign.