Krasnodar’s short bench proved their main undoing in their attempt to qualify for the first ever time for the Champions League and the Bulls had to settle for a place just outside the top three. This was somewhat logical considering that Krasnodar lost 6 of their 8 matches against the other top five rivals, with the key point of the season probably coming in November and December when in the space of just a few weeks defeats were suffered against all of Zenit, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Spartak.
From the start the Bulls were exposed for their lack of depth and the team’s big forward star and main goal provider Smolov missed the opening 6 rounds injured, which forced 17-year-old striker to be starting and brought Krasnodar only 3 wins.
Defensively the options were very thin too, while from time to time the natural full-back Shishkin had to fill in as a holding midfielder and in general Krasnodar had difficulties when more than two-three players had to miss games. The team also suffered shocking exit of Europe in the play-offs, plus had a first round defeat in the Russian Cup, and from very early in the campaign their only goal was the league.
Eventually the Bulls fought their way back into contention for a top three finish just before the winter break with 2017 ending on a run of five wins in the last six rounds. By that point Smolov was scoring again for fun, but the three-month break interrupted the momentum and slow start to 2018, one win in the first four rounds, saw coach Shalimov sacked after the 1:1 home draw vs. Anzhi in round 24.
The U23 boss Musaev was asked to finish the campaign in charge and he did relatively well as the Bulls won 4 of their last 6 matches, but they suffered an unaffordable 1:2 defeat against CSKA and this was the result that denied the team an opportunity to finish in the top three.
