Krylia Sovetov

Krylya Sovetov went through a pretty tumultuous and testing season last year in which they often were too close to the bottom four for comfort given their talent level. They did find an extra gear late in the campaign and got some impressive wins but the feeling that a journey has run its course was unescape and Igor Osinkin, who seemed on the brink of the sack on a few occasion during the season, was eventually let go after its completion. Krylya now embark on a something of a drastic new direction in which they are likely to be a bit more static, defensively oriented and focused more on results rather than style. They signalled that direction with the hiring of Magomed Adiev, a rather unremarkable coach who has not had much of a success at Akhmat or in Kazakhstan but is respected for his disciplined approach and demanding a lot of his players. The squad feels like it will undergo quite a facelift too as main striker Ivan Sergeev, reliable Roman Ezhov and Anton Zinkovskyi, goalie Ivan Lomaev and the excellent full-back Glen Bijl, are all heading for new adventures. Krylya have been active in the recruitment phase too as a mix of experienced old heads like Alexeuy Sutormin and Sergey Bozhin have arrived along with promising youngsters like Vadim Rakov and Nikita Kokarev. The jury is very much out on what is the overall quality of the squad for the coming season but it can be predicted with a fair bit of certainly that Krylya will not be as fun to watch, always ready to be on the attack and that feels like a loss, even if they are unlikely to have too much trouble near the bottom end of the standings.