Football Season Guide

Rodina start their first ever season as a top-level team in Russian football after the small club from the outskirts of the capital powered on top the top spot in the second division in hugely impressive manner. They actually started last season really poorly, six games without a win, but steadily gained momentum after that and by the spring were the best team in the division. Spanish coach Juan Diaz masterminded that success by instilling principles of technical football and passing to the squad in what is his first job as a first-team manager and it is a testament of the growth of this small club, formed only in 2019, that they will be now locking horns with the best teams in the country. Rodina have a balanced squad that is almost fully filled by Russian players only, with the only exceptions being Peruvian international Yordy Reina and striker Kerfala Cissoko. For now, Rodina have been very quiet on the transfer front and the squad is basically the same as it was last season. Iker Pozo arrived from Croatian side Gorica and he looks like a solid addition in midfield. But they will surely struggle massively in the new division if no other major additions are made but there is ample time to fix that issue and Diaz will for now focus on making that team tough to beat and to shoe belief and unity even if the odds are against them. They do have some good and promising players in Ruslan Fishchenko in midfield, Artem Maksimenko up front, and left-back Ilya Dyatlov. At the back a coupe of 30-somethings in Artem Meshchaninov and Matija Krizan brings experience and grit and that will be needed for the challenges to come. The wide areas look a weakness at the moment for this Rodina side and generally there is very little actual and reliable depth beyond the starting 11. Overall, while being too low on Rodina may feel a bit like overreaction, they do seem like the least experienced and least prepared side for the challenges to come and it is hard to see them not getting immediately relegated again.