Akhmat spent the entire season enjoying mid-table comfort with the Chechens never getting higher than 8th in the standings, but also never dropping lower that 12th. Last summer Talalaev was appointed in charge and his first campaign as a manager was always going to be testing. His cause was not made easier by the fact that team’s captain Utsiev missed the entire campaign injured + reliable striker Mbenge never returned to Russia after his summer break and eventually his contract had to be terminated.
Iljin was signed to become the new main man up front and despite season of ups and downs come the end of the campaign he looked very comfortable leader of the attack and scored lots of goals in 2021.
The Chechens kept mixing runs of 3-4 negative results with 3-4 positive ones all season and, despite some embarrassing results against struggling teams, Akhmat also showed that on a good day they could hurt anyone. Beat Krasnodar twice, earned 4 points from 2 games vs. Lokomotiv and also drew at home vs. Rubin and Zenit.
The style of play under the new manager didn’t change much and Akhmat continued to mix their formation regularly depending on who they were playing.
It had been long since Akhmat challenged for Europe and this is the goal ahead of the manager for next season. He could possibly do that only if he’s given money to strengthen the ranks in the summer with at least 2-3 more top quality players needed.
