World Cup 2018: Expectation is very high for this Russia team but I don’t know why, admits Leonid Slutsky
Former Hull boss explains why he thinks his country's national side is struggling as they prepare to face Saudi Arabia
TODAY IS the most important match for the Russian national team in its whole history.
The mood, the expectation, the reaction of our people depends on the first game against Saudi Arabia.
These are exciting times. Expectation is very high. This is normal in Russian football — but I don’t know why!
Since the Soviet Union broke up, we have had only one successful event, the Euros in 2008, when we qualified from the group and reached the semi-finals.
Otherwise we didn’t qualify for the tournament or went out in the group stage.
There was a terrible reaction to the World Cup in 2014 and to Euro 2016.
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All the supporters were angry with the performance of the team. We had serious criticism when we came back from the Euros.
I resigned because I needed a new challenge and to work every day. It wasn’t for me.
There’s a big difference between national team coach and club coach, which I understood very well after the European Championship.
But I believe I did a good job. Russia was bottom of the qualifying group for France 2016 when I became head coach.
Before the Euros we were in the top 22 or top 23 in the rankings. In the last two years we’ve gone down very quickly.
It’s frustrating for me that we are 70th, when we were 35th even after the Euros. This is not my fault!
Why has it happened? I don’t know the details but the answer is very simple — we don’t have a good team right now.
You will see from the squad that only two players are at clubs outside Russia, goalkeeper Vladimir Gabulov from Club Brugge and Denis Cheryshev, the Villarreal midfielder.
It’s a serious problem. We pay huge salaries for Russian players because there has to be at least five Russian players on the pitch for every team, always. So players don’t have a reason to go to other championships and show their level.
Top clubs don’t need our players because our players aren’t good enough for them. And for average clubs, it’s impossible because of the huge salaries.
An exception is Aleksandr Golovin of CSKA Moscow. He is the No 1 star. There is big interest from the big clubs in Europe for him. At 22 the midfielder is one the youngest players in the national team even though he played in Euro 2016.
Igor Akinfeev is a top goalkeeper. Whether he keeps a clean sheet in matches will be very important for us. Another star could be Alexey Miranchuk.
The attacker had a good season with Lokomotiv Moscow, winning the league title.
He was the leader in the team, and maybe he can build on that success. Midfielder Roman Zobnin is another very good young player.
Stanislav Cherchesov, the head coach, is under serious pressure. But as I know, each Russian national team head coach is always under serious pressure.
There are a lot of haters now, a lot of people thinking he’s not a good choice for us. But he’s a good coach and I wish him all the best.
The Russian national team has not won in the last seven friendly matches.
In the last two friendlies, against Austria and Turkey, we had only one shot on target. Our attack was really bad.
But Austria and Turkey are more serious national teams than Saudi Arabia.
Our reason for optimism, our hope, is that Saudi Arabia is worse than the Russia national team!
This is a crucial game. If we don’t beat Saudi Arabia of course we won’t have a lot of chance with stronger teams like Egypt and Uruguay.
We have waited for a long time for the World Cup.
We must win.
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