Football Season Guide

Orenburg enjoyed a pretty strong and impressive campaign last season in which they consistently punched above their weight. They team was never in any real danger of getting dragged into the relegation mix and at one point even contested for the top six before falling away. Yet, the outlook for the upcoming campaign is very murky and uncertain at the moment due to an exodus from the squad over the summer and the lack of any signings made so far due to a registration ban imposed from the federation. Vitaly Fedotov still has a pretty competitive squad at his disposal but the departures of cornerstones of the team from last season in Denis Popovic, Aleksey Sutormin and Sergey Breev, along with a few other pretty useful players, leave his options limited in case of injuries. Orenburg are likely to again deploy a very conservative game plan and use five across the back but the issue is the almost complete lack of creativity and quality in attack when the team occasionally counters. Will surely add some players to the squad going to August but they will certainly need some time to gel and Orenburg will certainly lack the cohesion and purpose that made them stand out last season.