Sardar Azmoun @ Zenit St. Petersburg | 2020-21

[KeonKish]

Barrios + Wendel+ Ozdoev should be good enough especially with malcolm who comes back to help a lot.

Additionally douglas santos was pretty good in CL last year and can also play in the MF.

Defense is looking much better with rakitsky and lovren.


In my view theres three major improvements compared to last season
-Lovren who is much better than a very old ivanovic
-Malcolm, who was really needed last season
-Wendel, a quality midfielder from sporting who can help zenit in possesion.


Like others have said I dont see anybody except dortmund dominating posession much, and even dortmund has very weak defense and I think zenit wont have trouble with them as they are much weaker than leipzig.

[Medzdidz]

That group is going to be full of goals, opportunity for Sardar to increase his Champs League goal count. Can see him getting a good amount in the group stage l.

[inarsenewetrust]

Barrios + Wendel+ Ozdoev should be good enough especially with malcolm who comes back to help a lot.

Additionally douglas santos was pretty good in CL last year and can also play in the MF.

Defense is looking much better with rakitsky and lovren.


In my view theres three major improvements compared to last season
-Lovren who is much better than a very old ivanovic
-Malcolm, who was really needed last season
-Wendel, a quality midfielder from sporting who can help zenit in possesion.


Like others have said I dont see anybody except dortmund dominating posession much, and even dortmund has very weak defense and I think zenit wont have trouble with them as they are much weaker than leipzig.

agreed. Even against leipzig zenit hung in there and had their moments, despite being dominated.

Against benfica at home they certainly were not dominated and could have won by more than 3-1 (sardar's great second finish was hardly offsides). Against lyon they dominated large stretches of the game in france and dominated completely at home. Keep in mind that lyon midfield was one of the best in the competition with Caqueret, Aouar some of the brightest in europe technically.

If we are to look at zenit mid line objectively, technique is an issue, but ability do hang physically is right up there. Ozdoev literally plays like he is on cocaine running the amount of 2 players, creating turnovers high up the pitch frequently. Barrios is one of the best specialist CDMs in world football, although his technical ability as a distributor is quite average. The space he covers, his perception of danger, tackling ability is all world class. Douglas Santos I think can shift into mid line again if necessary. He is a very smart hardworking player who combines solid technique with great engine and defensive awareness. He is super versatile and is also even playing as emergency CB this season at times.

Still, none of these guys have ability to CARRY ball forward and break pressure lines. This is key if you want to get malcom, driussi really involved and feeding Azmoun+Dzyuba instead of just lumping balls forward to dzyuba to flick onto a running sardar. This is where wendel comes in. If you see his highlights and development as a player in Sporting he really transitioned into an all around midfielder who has an excellent turn of pace, dribbling ability, shot, and in general retains the high energy style that defines zenit's midfield right now. He can cover very well defensively if played in a midfield 2 but still dribble through pressure and get the ball the offensive zones. He is young and has room for improvement and for 20M signing Sporting's best player and bruno fernandes replacement is good business by zenit.

As you mention keon, lovren for ivanovic is an upgrade in CL. Although ivanovic is super solid his lack of speed meant zenit had to drop super deep at times to avoid getting caught out. Lovren also retains a goal threat like rakitskiy.

I think their ability to get through is less dictated by their players as it is their coach. This is really coming down to tactical improvement/nouse of semak. They have a decent quality level and if he makes proper adjustments they will get through. The question is can he do that? For example I think including youngster LB krugovoy in certain matches could be really helpful. He is very dynamic and a strong ball carrier and crosser. That would free up douglas to play in the middle some matches alongside Wendel, Barrios.

They added some speed to their bench with youngster mostovoy who is a good talent for russian standards and alrady in their NT. He is a good dribbler and creative presence but obviously with his age comes inconsistency.

My only real concern besides Semak ability to win high profile CL tactical matchups is lack of cover at CB if lovren/rakitskiy go down.

[kian_khosh]

he went to Locomotiv Moscow not Zenit. And ze Luis isn’t as good as Sardar anyways

really? i got a notification from fotmob saying that he was going to zenit

[ramendawg]

really? i got a notification from fotmob saying that he was going to zenit

Must be a mistake Lokomotiv announced the move https://www.fclm.ru/ru/publications/news/22885

[diz]

[Leicester City]

[scuderia]

is this Russian ?

[inarsenewetrust]

is this Russian ?

yes. He speaks russian and english fluently. Also turkish (istanbuli) to go with his local turkmen.

[diz]

yes. He speaks russian and english fluently. Also turkish (istanbuli) to go with his local turkmen.

Finally!

[BacheLot]

yes. He speaks russian and english fluently. Also turkish (istanbuli) to go with his local turkmen.

fekr konam farsi ham ye kam baladeh..?
also questionable how Fluent as far and his Russian and English is concerned ...!!? but probably good enough as far as his career requirement is concerned ..!

[diz]

I know one word in Russian, and he said it like 10 times

"Kharasho" = good

[webmaster]

He speaks very well actually. Kharasho means OK as well, but he is fluent. He talked about Uzbekistan being a good team with top fans and the stadium and etc and also about the game we won. And he said Zenit will be the champions of Russia for ever. :-)

[Keano]

Hehe he said “kharasho” (Good) at least 20 times in his 1 minute interview [emoji1][emoji1]

Well at least it finally feels so good to see him speak Russian himself and handling the whole interview himself without the need of a translator.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Futbaldoost]

Hehe he said “kharasho” (Good) at least 20 times in his 1 minute interview [emoji1][emoji1]
Well at least it finally feels so good to see him speak Russian himself and handling the whole interview himself without the need of a translator.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I noticed the same thing. Of course, one could be fluent in a language and not have an even average vocabulary. Many people are fluent in their mother tongue (let alone a difficult language like Russian) yet lack vocabulary skills. It definitely seems that his language skills have improved.

Go Sardar!