Anzhi looked like a doomed side right from the off as severe financial problems meant that almost every decent player in the squad left for pastures new and coach Magomed Adiev had to look on the scrapheap and try to construct a team on the fly.
The coach adopted an ultraconservative system with five at the back and tried to get the odd good result by getting a goal on the counter and keeping it tight at the back. It was the best possible strategy for a team low on quality and cohesion and it worked at times as Anzhi earned a few surprisingly good results in the autumn. The most shocking one was definitely a win over Zenit at home and at that time the Dagestan team looked in a good position to beat the drop.
Yet the lack of real attacking potency apart from lively Colombian forward Andres Ponce was clear while in midfield Vladislav Kulik was the only one trying to create something and not just destroy. The undoubted hero of the tea was keeper Yuri Dyupin, unknown and without top-flight experience, who was regularly making some top saves and earned the team a number of points.
Thus, Anzhi went into the winter break in a relatively decent position outside of the bottom two, but still with a bleak outlook off the pitch. Indeed, they lost even more regulars during the early moths of 2019 and looked a poorer side in the spring. The team mustered just the two points in 12 games after a shock win at Orenburg in early March and eventually Ufa got the better of them to get a relegation play-off spot and consign the Makhachkala team to a relegation that was always on the cards.
