Football Season Guide

Rostov looked as though they could have pushed Zenit all the way for the title last season but they ran out of steam as they finished in fourth under Valeri Karpin. A couple of additions in attack will look to make up for the loss of Dmitriy Poloz. Mohammad Mohebi and the experienced Aleksey Ionov have joined the attack, with the latter having seen plenty of action in the Russian Premier League in the past with Krasnodar. Evgeniy Chernov has completed his move after spending the season on loan last term. He will feature at full-back, especially after the departure of Aleksandr Silyanov who has returned to his parent club. The future of midfielder Kento Hashimoto is still up in the air. He has returned back to his parent club but could still be loaned out. Mathias Normann is also due back but not until later in the summer. They have lost a couple of depth pieces in the midfield too as Aleksandr Selyava and Kirill Folmer have left the club. However, they have brought in Roman Akbashev from Fakel. A number of foreign players, such as Dennis Hadzikadunic, Pontus Almqvist and Magnus Knudsen have left the club on loan once more. Rostov dropped off massively last season after the title was gone. They are lacking a little firepower but Nikolay Komlichenko will be looking to take over as the main source of goals. Inconsistency was the theme last year and the defence will need to tighten up as well but hasn't seen many changes.