Introduction:
Dmitri Kombarov and his twin brother Kirill started their career at Spartak Moscow’s academy, but made the ‘illegal transfer’ to arch rivals Dinamo Moscow at the age of 14 after a conflict with their coach. Four years later, the brothers were promoted to the first team, and Dmitri received his debut for the Blue-Whites in 2005.
The Kombarov’s represented Dinamo’s first team for four and a half seasons before returning to Spartak in the summer of 2010, thus making the illegal move for the second time. Since returning to the Red-Whites, Kombarov has been a certain first choice on the left wing, moving between full back, wing back and a real winger depending on the preferences of the head coach. He even deputized in central midfield when Valery Karpin was in charge of the People’s Team.
In September 2014, Kombarov became the first player ever to score at Spartak’s stadium Otkritie Arena, as he scored the first goal in the exhibition game against Serbian side Red Star in the opening match.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Ever since his debut for Dinamo Moscow in 2005, Dmitri Kombarov has divided Russian football fans into two camps; those who praise him for his offensive contribution, and those who criticize him for his defensive flaws.
He is an offensive minded defender, who always looks to push forward, hug the sideline and overlap his winger. He is technically gifted, and although he doesn’t have the pace of for example Igor Smolnikov, he is able to beat his opponent due to his dribbling skills. Kombarov is furthermore a remarkable passer and set piece specialist, which is why his crosses are feared by most defenders. Kombarov’s strength is highlighted by the fact that he averaged more key passes per game in the 2015/2016 season than any other defender, while he also had the highest number of passes into the box and the third most crosses according to statistics from InStat.
Kombarov is however also poor defensively, and his mistakes have often hit both Spartak and Russia. His offensive runs leaves open room for the opponent, but he is also poor defending one against one.
The 2015/16 season:
Like the rest of Spartak Moscow, the 2015/2016 had its ups and downs for Kombarov. He started the season well and managed to get on the scoreboard against arch rivals CSKA Moscow at Otkritie Arena in August. However, by November, his form dropped, and with the exception of a couple of good performances, he was quite unreliable in the spring, where we saw more defensive mistakes than offensive contribution. In fact, Kombarov is yet to score or assist in 2016. The low came in the 2-0 defeat to FC Rostov in April, when he received an unnecessary red card.
