Photo: FC Lokomotiv press service / Alexander Pogrebnyak
On Saturday, the White-Blues will play against Lokomotiv during the matchday 29. In our preview we tell you about the changes in the defensive line of the Red-Greens and key players of the team in the spring part of the season.
Lokomotiv were not stable in the first part of the season. In winter, Loko parted ways with centre-back Slobodan Rajković and bought Pablo to replace him. The Brazilian immediately fit in the team's game, becoming a partner to Vedran Ćorluka in the centre of the defense.
Marko Nikolić also changed Dmitry Rybchinsky’s position dropping the midfielder to the right wing of the defense and introduced young Maxim Mukhin to the starting line-up. All these changes had a positive effect on the defensive actions of the team and gave more freedom to the attacking group.
The pair of strikers Francois Camano and Fyodor Smolov made considerable progress and already scored 14 goals in different tournaments after the winter break. And this is without the playmaker Anton Miranchuk, who returned to the pitch in April after a muscle injury, but so far only comes out as a substitute. He was successfully replaced by Rifat Zhemaletdinov, who scored 3 goals and made 5 assists during this period.
As a result, Lokomotiv equaled the club record of eleven consecutive wins, climbed to the second place in standings and reached the Russian Cup final which will be held in 4 days in Nizhny Novgorod.
The match against Zenit brought the first disappointment in the spring part of the season. Loko conceded 6 goals in one match for the second time in their post-Soviet history, lost chances to win the title and allowed Spartak to get the second place. Nikolić urged not to dramatize the situation, complained about the unusually large number of errors made by his team and noted the perfect finishing of Zenit St. Petersburg.
It was not the first painful defeat of the season for Loko: they also conceded five goals against Krasnodar and Dynamo. In the first round, the White-Blues earned a bright victory (5:1). Roman Yevgenyev’s early goal, as well as two sent-offs of Lokomotiv players allowed our team to dominate that game.
In Saturday's match, Lokomotiv’s top scorer and the best player of April Grzegorz Krychowiak will not play due to suspension. So 24-year-old Dmitry Barinov will probably become the most experienced player in the midfield.
According to the decision by RFU Control and Disciplinary Committee, Lokomotiv will play against Dynamo on neutral ground. This will be the 11th meeting of the teams at the Arena Khimki. At the moment, Loko have 4 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats with a goal difference of 17:15.