Lokomotiv trashed by the Police

I never saw this coming. All the high expectations prior to the start of the season are all in vain. By luring players of calibre such as Aliev, Tarasov and Maicon amongst others I was adamant that his year could have been our year. I was wrong, literally. We're barely in the second part of the season and the season is all but over for us. Not only we weren't capable to compete for a Champions League, let alone for the league but now we are risking that next season European football will be missing once again from Lokomotiv Stadium. Outrageous.

While it's obvious that we are struggling because we don't have a recognised striker, this cannot excuse such sub-par performances such as the one today against today Dynamo. How on earth can one striker in the form of Kuranyi get the best of all our three defenders? How on earth the man who banged in a goal after goal in the pre-season isn't no longer to control a ball let alone score a goal? How on earth Tarasov is doing so badly after his fantastic start? These are some of the questions which I believe that this squad have to answer. Apart of Aliev, Guilherme, Yanbaev and the recently arrived Shishkin, all the other have been too way inconsistent. This may mean that there can be other players like Odemwinky; that is they are happy to receive the paycheck and give no effort at all on pitch - and this hurts me lot.

Nevertheless, it hurts me even more when following what Semin have done for us, some of the fans publically call for him to resign. For me, Semin is faultless. Although it's true that he has to take up some responsibiliy, I don't believe that it is his fault that the players aren't following him. First, for example, following the disastrous performances by the two centrebacks in recent weeks, Semin tried to address the system by playing with three central defenders. Nevertheless this failed to yield any dividends as twice Dynamo capitalised on errors from defenders. Can Semin be blamed for this? No! Second, Haminu Dramani was given his first ever start and to tell the truth he did particularly well in the first period. His link up play with the rest of the midfield was what Lokomotiv have been missing for the recent weeks. However, with little luck Lokomotiv lost possibly their best player of the first 45 minutes due to injury which according to emergng results will leave him out for the best of 30 days. While I agure the best for the Ghanian international I ask again the question - is Semin to blame for the impotency in attack in the second period? No! It's not his fault that the attacking options at his disposal includes only the clumsy Draman Traore! How about the fact that Lokomotiv haven't signed a recognized striker yet? Well if I want I can outline another few reasons why I don't find Semin culpable, but truly there's no need to. Moreover if there is someone who can help us out from this situation, it is Semin.

With regards to today's match there is not a lot to write about. Lokomotiv threatened only twice through some Aliev-Dramani link-up play, while practically eveything else was all Dynamo Moscow. Although the three at the back managed to defend well, it was evident that they were a tragedy looking to happen and eventually on 40 minutes Kuranyi pounced on Basha's error to break the deadlock. Semshov played a beautiful ball to Kuranyi, who being left onside by Basha ran to Guilherme and clipped the ball over Guilherme and home. Lokomotiv failed to respond, even in the second half when Semin introduced Tarasov, Traore and Loskov for Kambolov, Haminu Dramani and Torbinsky respectively. As soon as Loskov was on pitch Lokomotiv seemed of having found the courage to try to snatch a draw but unfortunately, Basha assisted Kuranyi for his second as his short back pass to Guilherme was anticipated by the German, who then done the rest of the job. To add salt to injury Tarasov was shown his marching orders for a high boot on Semshov - however this wasn't the last kick in the teeth for Lokomotiv as in a perfect counter ttack Cesnauskis made them three. Dynamo 3, Lokomotiv 0.

Player Ratings:

Guilherme - 6

Did nothing wrong but partly culpable for the third. Nevertheless the match was won and lost by then.

Shishkin - 6

Did well but misplaced some passes

Basha - 3

Horror show. Undid Lokomotiv

Asatiani - 5

Defensively suscepible

Rodolfo - 5.5

Slight improvement from last week

Yanbaev - 5.5

Has yet to hit top form following the World Cup break

Kambolov - 5

Anonymous in the first half

Aliev - 7

The only positive one. Was comprehensively frustated as his teammates started to spill simple passes.
Torbinsky - 6

Slight improvement. Linked pretty well with Haminu and Aliev in attack.

Dramani - 6.5

Bright performance from the Ghanian international. Should have scored thou.

Sychev - 5

Missed a glorious chance and largely disappointing. Scored but was rightly ruled offside.

Substitutes

Tarasov - 4

Did nothing but getting himself off and putting his teammates in an impossible situation

Traore - 5

Clumsy, enough said.

Loskov - 6

Failed to steady an already sinking ship, but at least tried.