Football Season Guide

A year after having their best ever campaign and also experiencing first ever European fixtures Ufa needed to go through survival play-offs to preserve their elite status. With 2 such contrasting campaigns in a row it is hard to see which way Ufa’s fortunes will sway this season. However, after the spring appointment of Vadim Evseev in charge the results saw vast improvement and now the ambitious manager is hoping to see this positive trend continuing. Ufa are yet to make a new signing likely to be challenging for starting spot, but even without doing so the squad’s depth is good as most of those that arrived last summer to help with the demands of European and domestic fixtures are still there. All of Thill, Bizjak and Vombergar had mediocre first years in Russia, but all 3 of them have the potential to be much more effective and helpful in their second years. With Sly still at the club Ufa have plenty of weapons in attack and they also remain very well equipped at the other end of the pitch. Belenov is rated as one of the best goalkeepers in Russia these days, while in front of him plenty of quality defenders are expected to mix Ufa’s formations more often than in years past. Under Evseev trend to use 4-4-2 shape at home and more conservative 3-5-2 on the road developed and this could continue.