When Russia kick off their World Cup preparations on August 31, the squad will include several new faces. That became clear when head coach Stanislav Cherchesov announced his first squad as head of the Russian national team on Tuesday afternoon.
Although Cherchesov claimed he wouldn’t revolutionize the squad when he was hired, he has made drastic changes already, and the group that face Turkey on the last night of August, and Ghana in Moscow six days later is remarkably different from Leonid Slutsky’s. 15 of the 23 players who went with Sbornaya to France for the Euro have been left at home, and seven players, including the three stand-by players who’ll train with the squad, could make their debuts as Cherchesov has kicked off the rejuvenation process.
The most significant addition to the squad is CSKA Moscow’s defender Mario Fernandes, who just recently received Russian citizenship. He will however not be able to play for Sbornaya as he is yet to meet UEFA’s demands for nationality change. “He has received his Russian passport and has a chance to make his debut for the national team in the near future – April-May at the latest,” Russian Football Union President Vitaly Mutko said, “The coach has invited him and wants to get acquainted with the footballer and see him in training. We will count on him in the future, won’t we? He is a valuable defender and everybody knows him. He says he would like to play for the national team and the coach’s decision looks logical,” Mutko added.
Looking at the players who weren’t called up, it is worth noticing that two of the main characters in this summer’s soap drama about Russian football players, Pavel Mamaev and Aleksandr Kokorin, have both been left out, despite receiving plenty of playing time for their clubs. Cherchesov has also looked past Zenit goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin, who had deputized Igor Akinfeev for years.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA), Stanislav Kritsyuk (FC Krasnodar), Soslan Dzhanaev (FC Rostov)
Defenders: Vasiliy Berezutskiy (CSKA), Mario Fernandes (CSKA), Yuri Zhirkov (Zenit), Roman Shishkin (Lokomotiv), Roman Neustädter (Fenerbahce), Ivan Novoseltsev (FC Rostov), Fyodor Kudryashov (FC Rostov), Andrey Semenov (Terek), Sergey Petrov (FC Krasnodar), Ilya Kutepov (Spartak)
Midfielders: Alan Dzagoev (CSKA), Aleksandr Samedov (Lokomotiv), Aleksey Miranchuk (Lokomotiv), Dmitry Tarasov (Lokomotiv), Oleg Shatov (Zenit), Magomed Ozdoev (Rubin), Maksim Kanunnikov (Rubin), Roman Zobnin (Spartak), Yuri Gazinskiy (FC Krasnodar), Roman Emelyanov (Ural)
Strikers: Artyom Dzyuba (Zenit), Fyodor Smolov (FC Krasnodar), Dmitry Poloz (FC Rostov)
Fernandes, Kutepov and Emelyanov are back-ups.
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