Team Focus: Zenit's New Dawn Starting Brightly Under Villas-Boas

A new dawn is upon Zenit St Petersburg as the club seeks to reaffirm its wavering position at the fore of Russian football. The demise of Luciano Spalletti’s tenure at Zenit can be attributed to many differing factors, having initially begun in the summer of 2012 with the seemingly indulgent purchases of Hulk and Axel Witsel. His dismissal as head coach, shortly after the lengthy winter break, brought to an end a sequence of results which had seen the team throw away a commanding position at the top of the table, while enabling the likes of Lokomotiv Moscow to dream of an unlikely domestic triumph.

Andre Villas-Boas’ swift introduction to Russian football could potentially have been something of a baptism of fire for a man accustomed to the glamour and rigmarole of the English Premier League. As soon as it became clear that he was indeed the man that Gazprom were intent on placing their hopes and beliefs in, the anticipation of the Portuguese’s arrival became palpable. Videos were rapidly released by the club showing the passionate and intense nature of the former Tottenham Hotspur coach on the training pitch – a direct contrast to Spalletti – as the sense that the ushering in of a new progressive era of domestic dominance could be on the horizon.

Spalletti’s failings in the final period of his time in Russia created a team that looked woefully disjointed – both on and off the pitch. Obvious cliques had long been formed, with the Russian players and ever growing collection of Portuguese speakers at the club forging an uneasy and fraught relationship. The distinct lack of unity within the squad ultimately meant that when the going began to get tough, the blame was laid at the door of each group of players.
 
The Italian struggled to even come close to resolving the issues within the squad and as such the results began to turn increasingly sour as this season’s winter break approached. Home defeats to Rostov and CSKA Moscow added to the humiliation of draws against the likes of Amkar Perm, Terek Grozny and Tom Tomsk. Aside from the former champions, CSKA, each of those fixtures should have been a routine 3 points for Spalletti’s side – however each stumble added a further nail to his coffin.

Villas-Boas appears to have managed to steady a ship that had threatened to sink without trace completely this season. In the 5 games that he has overseen since arriving in St Petersburg, he is yet to experience the pain of defeat. Confidence has grown to such an extent that it seems impossible that the team won’t go on to win the title, when previously it had been difficult to imagine them dusting themselves off to even mount a challenge.

One of the most obvious improvements made under Villas-Boas is that the team are even more capable of maintaining possession of the ball for long periods of time. The club have averaged a sizeable 59% of possession in Villas-Boas’ opening five games – with their last match against Anzhi seeing the team enjoying 67% of the ball. Such dominance has been key in endearing the Portuguese’s methods to an expectant St Petersburg public.

Of course possession does not always win football matches, as both Villas-Boas and Zenit have found to their peril in the past, so it has been particularly important for the team to possess a cutting edge when opportunities arise. As such it’s pertinent to point out that Zenit have averaged 3.2 goals a game in the past 5 matches, while the team appeared to limp along at 1.9 goals a game under Spalletti earlier in the season. This influx in goals can be largely attributed to the scoring exploits of one of the team’s most controversial figures, Hulk – who Villas-Boas worked closely with while at Porto. The Brazilian has bagged 16 league goals so far this season, with 7 of those being enjoyed by an exuberant Villas-Boas on the touchline – with a sensational WhoScored.com rating of 8.6 in that time.

The blueprint to Spalletti’s success, during his two league title triumphs, stemmed from exploiting the attacking talents that his team could boast. Villas-Boas is hardly reinventing the wheel when it comes to asserting a style upon his players, but there is a sense of refinement that has been obvious during his brief tenure so far. Pass accuracy has witnessed an improvement, along with the average number of passes per game – which is now up to 371. The team have bought into their new coach’s methods, and the benefits that such belief brings are something that hadn’t truly been felt during the final 18 months of Spalletti’s time at the club.

The early signs seem to be pointing to a happy union between Andre Villas-Boas and Zenit, however the marriage remains firmly rooted in its infancy. The key to the coach’s continued success is reliant upon how the Portuguese manages to deal with the external pressures of Russian football. Previous forays with Chelsea and Spurs proved difficult thanks to the inadequacies of the club’s owners, both of whom share similarities with Zenit’s majority shareholder Gazprom.
 
Should the football continue to remain of a high quality then Villas-Boas may well have the capabilities to lead Zenit toward a long awaited venture into the latter stages of the Champions League. However a balance needs to be maintained in ensuring that the stability of the squad is not hindered by expensive signings in the mould of Hulk and Axel Witsel. Should the club go from strength to strength over the coming months then Villas-Boas will be heralded as a saviour, with Spalletti’s time at the club becoming an ever-distant memory.

Will Zenit retain their Russian Premier League crown under Villas-Boas? Let us know in the comments below