Spartak failed to defend their title and despite enjoying eighteen-game unbeaten run in the league between rounds 8 and 25 crucial defeats against direct rivals early in the season and back-to-back losses in April saw the Reds having to settle only for third place this campaign.
The start to the season was hard with July and August proving to cause the most damage for Spartak. The campaign started with back-to-back draws against Dinamo and Ufa, which were soon followed by defeats in the derbies against all of Zenit, CSKA and Lokomotiv.
Eventually the team got into rhythm after this difficult opening, but they had catching up to do and never managed to close the gap to future champions Lokomotiv to more than two points.
Spartak played relatively well at both ends of the pitch, they kept 14 clean sheets in the league and averaged more than two goals scored per game, but the problem with the short season in Russia is that the slow start proved too much to overcome.
Carrera’s players also enjoyed decent, if not outstanding campaigns, in the Champions League and in the Russian Cup, but none of these tournaments brought the desired successes either.
Promes was as usual the main threat up front, although both Adriano and Ze Luis were scoring goals regularly too, Fernando was arguably the best inner midfielder of the team, Zobnin impressed with his versatility after playing in five different roles during the season, Kutepov and Selikhov had their first campaigns as regular starters in defence and on goal.
Eventually the season was decided in the space of 10 horrible days in April during which Spartachi were eliminated in the Russian Cup semi-final after shocking home defeat against Tosno and in-between this disaster they suffered league defeats at the hands of Ural and Akhmat, which ended their title hopes three rounds before the end.
