It’s been almost 2 years and 3 months since I took over at Lokomotiv Moskva. Time really does fly and I thought it would be nice to make a detailed blogpost about our journey during this period.
We just recently ended Season 26, which didn’t quite go as I expected. We ended up in a messy relegation fight, had to make some concessions in the market to bring in ratings, but managed to achieve safety in the end. It was one of these classic SM seasons where everything goes wrong but we didn’t get relegated anyway, so no harm was done and next season we can try for promotion again.
In the meantime I would like to go back to the beginning of my adventure here in Moscow and then make a small analysis of our current team:
When I took over in November 2023 the team was in shambles to say the least. Old players in freefall, little to no assets for trading (with the exception of Raphael Veiga, who after all was a 28 year old playing in Brazil) and also quite the weak youth setup. Here is how the team looked like when I was appointed at Lokomotiv (P.S. for the life of me I can’t remember who my starting CBs were, I simply remember they were so awful I had to immediately replace them, so in their place I’ve added Ramalho and Saiss who I both bought for cash at the time. Other than the CBs, the lineup is 100% correct and reflects the state of the team at the time).
As can be seen above, the average age of our lineup was 31.36 years and the average rating 87.45. To add to this there were basically 0 decent squad players, I had to get rid of 10-15 players aged 30+ and rated sub 84, which I can only assume were left there out of negligence, as no one has any use for such players. Basically the team looked like a midtable div 5 team.
To illustrate the declining state of Lokomotiv, here’s how the lineup would look today if no changes were made. 9/11 players have dropped in rating since then, with Terraciano and Bruno Henrique barely holding to their 87.
In contrast, here’s how the team looks nowadays:
Average age of 28.54 and average rating of 89.36. We’ve lowered the average age of our lineup by about 3 years and increased the rating by about 2 points. Should be mentioned that the average age is skewed by a couple of players who are being used as a short term solution such as Muslera 39 years old. On top of this our squad now mostly consists of players on the rise, not on the decline. Below I’ve made a summary of our team:
Goalkeeper
Muslera 88 is the player who guards our goal. At 39 he’s certainly a short term solution but a solid one nonetheless considering his team just won the Clausura in Argentina and Muslera’s rating remained unchanged in the Argentinian review few days back. His 88 should be fine for most of 2026 and by then I hope our reserve gk Agkatsev 85 has reached at least an 87 rating. Agkatsev is the starting GK of top Russian club Krasnodar and also a frequent starter for the Russian national team so I do expect him to follow Safonov’s track rating wise. Nevertheless chances are we’ll be in the market for a new GK shortly.
Defense
Starting from the left side we have Lewis Hall 88, a player who I’ve been after for quite some time. In my opinion Hall has a really high ceiling and he’s very likely to be the future of the English NT at LB. He’s an integral part of our team and one of the players who I plan on keeping for a long time, part of my Division 1 vision.
The centre of our defense consists of Lacroix and Gomez both 89 rated. We’re very happy with Lacroix, he’s been a standout performer in the Premier League at 25 and I think he’s still far from his ceiling. Gomez while older (32) is a safe 89 as he captains Palmeiras, one of Brazil’s top clubs. Of course he’s already reached his ceiling at 89 but he’ll keep that rating for around 2-3 more years imo.
Right side of our defense is covered by Gross 90 who’s finding a second life irl at Brighton. Not much to say here, we need the ratings in our goal for promotion and a 90 rated RB isn’t something many teams (if any) have the luxury of fielding in div 4.
Most notable subs: 1. Kevin Mac Allister 88 (can play all positions in defense, really solid defender for Union St Gilloise and also called up for the Argentinian NT). 2. Marcos Alonso 88, not the youngest but still a versatile defender in 0 risk of dropping. 3. James Hill 83, young defender who has started every game so far for Bournemouth in 2026 and has really impressed with his performance. Only 83 at the moment but expecting a nice rise for him in the next review if he keeps starting games.
Midfield
Since we usually play 4-2-3-1 formation we only need 2 central midfielders. As of now these midfielders are Locatelli 91 and Tyler Adams 88. Locatelli doesn’t need much introduction, Juventus captain who is really shining under the management of Spalletti. He’s the backbone of our team, always puts him in a shift. Tyler Adams on the other hand is a recent acquisition who we got from Hamburg in exchange for Pasalic. Has quite strong links to Manchester United irl with rumors of a potential 40 million move, but remains to be seen.
As for midfield subs we mostly use our versatile players who can play M(C): Gross 90, Hall 88, Mcginn 91, depending on the needs of the team.
Attack
On the right side of the attack we have the absolute gem of our team, Rayan Cherki 22/91. In my opinion he’s a generational talent who will reach the very top and we’re delighted that he’s part of Lokomotiv. Sky is the limit for Cherki and there are 0 plans to move him to another squad.
Left side we have Aston Villa’s captain Mcginn 91. He joined us near the end of last season and made huge impact right from the start. I expect him to be vital in our quest for promotion next season, 91 rating is quite the firepower in div 4.
Behind the striker plays Isi Palazon 88, who isn’t a long term solution for our team but he’s a very safe 88 for the upcoming seasons and always puts in a shift.Up front we have Illiman Ndiaye 25/90, recently crowned African champion with Senegal. He just joined our club recently and we can’t wait to see his goals and impact next season.
Our subs in attack consist of a mix of experienced players like Cordoba 88, Fekir 88 and younger players with a lot of room to grow such as Summerville 86 and Igamane 86.
Youth Squad
We’ve used most of our young gems (who we found external) in deals to gain more first team players. Unfortunately with the team I was given I had no choice but to sacrifice a lot of wonderkids to fix my first team, and I will still have to do the same for about 1-2 years. Once I have a solid first team consisting of 11 division 1 worthy players such as Cherki and Hall, we can start hoarding youth and patiently waiting for them to grow. During our tenure here we have scouted a lot of talent external, most notably: Batrakov 20/88, Bazoumana Toure 19/84, Jauregizar 22/89, Biereth 22/88, Epolo 21/84 etc. The next batch is already being cooked at our youth squad and they will be the foundation for our new first team players.
Conclusion
I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made at Lokomotiv and the future seems bright. End goal is to turn Lokomotiv into a div 1 regular and hopefully we can throw the first step next season.
Top 100 
Leave a comment