Anzhi Makhachkala started the season with pretty much a new-look squad and optimism was not exactly high after scraping with relegation at the end of last season. Aleksandr Grigoryan did not seem to be commanding respect from his squad as well and endured a rocky start of the season. Five losses in the opening six games proved the ending for him as it soon became clear that Anzhi will be facing a real struggle at the bottom end of the table and needed someone else in charge.
They were actually played some decent football at times in these opening games but just lacked understanding and cohesion on the pitch, while committing too many naive mistakes. Vadim Skripchenko took over as a manager and tried to instil some stability and structure into the team. The results improved slightly but Anzhi never really looked like they can escape relegation trouble. Inspired performances earned them points against top sides like Zenit and Spartak Moscow in the autumn but the lack of a potent striker and reliable wingers meant that attacking prowess was limited.
Indeed, Anzhi ended the calendar year very much downbeat, beating only pushovers SKA Khabarovsk in a six-game stretch. The manager tried to bolster the squad in the spring but none of the additions added value to the already existing squad and Anzhi remained very much a run-of-the-mill side that was now battling desperately with Tosno to avoid automatic relegation. The Eagles beat their direct rivals in a crucial game in March but went on to get only one more point until the end of the regular season. Some static football and lack of resilience at the back meant that they gradually lost more and more confidence and went into the play-offs very much out of form.
That proved fatal as Yenisey Krasnoyarsk handed them a 3:0 loss in the first leg and Anzhi could not recover at home, winning only 4:3. That brought to an end a three-year stay in the top-flight and basically ended their misery in what has been a rather challenging last few campaigns.
