Football Season Guide

Krylya Sovetov were one of the better teams in the league last season, playing a brand of neat attacking football and being proactive on the ball. That said, they did lose a bit of momentum in the latter stages of the campaign and ultimately finished only in mid-table after a run of six games without a win to close the campaign. Igor Osinkin stays on for another season as a Krylya manager, despite being of interest of some top clubs, and he is now one of the longest-serving managers in the league. He is not expected to change too much in his approach and will want to see his side being active in the final third and bold in possession. As usual, Krylya are leaving most of their transfer business for the final weeks of the window and so far their only addition has been veteran keeper Sergey Pesjakov. In terms of departures, they are two regular starters down as Yuri Gorshkov is off to champions to Zenit and prodigy winger Nikita Saltykiv, the breakout star of last season, is heading to Lokomotiv Moscow. The latter will be especially tough to replace but Krylya still have some good options on the wings and will hope to keep key player Benjamin Garre fit for longer stretches of the season compared to last year. Thus, Krylya are likely to once again hover in and around the top six places and the upper echelon of mid-table but do not have the talent and firepower to aim for anything bigger.