Football Season Guide

Yet another year went by with Spartak not qualifying for Europe and the patience of the fans is very thin these days. Last season, just like the four before, was one to forget for Spartak and somewhat surprisingly coach Alenichev was given a credit of trust in the summer. Of course, now the pressure is on him as the Reds must secure a top four finish at the end of the campaign as it is not fitting for the most popular team in Russia to be existing in the middle of the table for so long. Alenichev is aware that a strong start to the season will be needed and if nothing else he addressed well the main problem Spartachi had in 2015/16. The team lacked creativity in the middle of the park all last season but with the arrivals of Zobnin and Fernando there is hope that this will change. The two newcomers will be competing with Glushakov and Romulo for the double-six positions and at least two of them should be decent enough. Up front things look okay in terms of first choice players as Promes, Popov and Melgarejo are expected to form the fork behind Ze Luis, but again the lack of cover worries many. The other worry is that the situation with many of the players that returned from loans remain unclear and at the minute half a dozen players are more interested in looking for transfers than training hard for the start of the campaign. The defence is also hardly solid and in this area problems can be expected if no new signings are made before the end of the transfer window. Spartak have the support and the stadium to be amongst the leading sides, but it seems that the squad is still not complete and also the manager failed to convince in his first year in charge and now won’t be given a lot of time if things turn ugly. Improving the home form will be a number one priority and with the expected better display in the middle of the park this is likely to happen if Promes and Ze Luis remain healthy in attack.