Orenburg

After a miraculous seventh-placed finish during the 2022/23 season, Orenburg failed to replicate that last term, only just narrowly escaping the relegation play-off. Jiří Jarošík was replaced by David Deogracia following the club's poor start to last season, and he will look for a much improved campaign this time around in his first full season in charge. The club completed the permanent transfers of Justin Cuero and Jordhy Thompson over the summer to keep their attacking options deep, while Iranian forward Saeid Saharkhizan looks to be a like-for-like replacement for Dmitriy Vorobyev who left for Lokomotiv Moscow. Further depth has been added in the form of Aleksey Baranovskiy, Artem Kasimov, Dmitriy Rybchinskiy and Georgiy Zotov. Zotov is likely to slot in at right-back after Arsen Adamov returned to Zenit following his loan move. That should make up for the departures of Lucas Vera, Renato Gojkovic, Vladimir Obukhov and Mikhail Sivakov. The loss of Vorobyev will likely be felt, at least at the start, as he led the league goalscoring charts for Orenburg last term with eight. Brian Mansilla will look to build upon his seven goal contributions, while Saharkhizan will look to add some more firepower after scoring seven league goals for former club Gol Gohar last season, but the club may struggle for goals again this term.