Football Season Guide

After the major disappointment that proved to be last season and the inevitable departure of coach Mancini after just one year in charge, Zenit are looking to regain their confidence with much better results and displays this year. For the first time in nearly a decade the Blue-White-Sky Blues are trusting a Russian manager, with Zenit’s ex-legend Sergey Semak proving his worth as a gaffer with Ufa last season. Knowing the structure and the team inside out Semak is not in any hurry and he is yet to sign a new player. That said he welcomed back willingly the many players that were out on loan and it seems that everyone will be given a chance to prove that they deserve to wear a Zenit shirt. The squad remains big even without new arrivals, with the only notable departure so far that of the long-serving left-back Criscito, who returned to his childhood team in Italy before retirement. Zenit have very healthy competition for starting places in their ranks and with two solid goalkeepers, four very good centre-backs and four evenly matched full-backs scoring goals against them is expected to be difficult once again. Semak showed masterful skills in making Ufa very hard to score against last term and he is working long hours with Zenit’s defence over the summer months to achieve the same. Up the field the abundance of talent allows Zenit to use different formations according to the opponents and all of 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 are possible choices. From the returning from loan players Shatov and Djordjevic seem to be certain to stay at Zenit and receive their chance to shine, but once again the main threat up front will be Kokorin. Dzyuba is also still at the club, but he is put on the transfer list as Semak doesn’t like to use old-fashion centre forwards in his team. Zenit will almost certainly sign at least 1-2 big names before the end of August, but some of the players brought by Mancini could also leave. Paredes seems destined to return to Italy if suitors meet his asking price.