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.

5 November 2023. That’s the day I was appointed at Lokomotiv, with a difficult task on my hands. Almost a year has passed since then and I thought it would be the right time to write an article about how the team has changed during this time and what to expect in the future.

When I first joined Lokomotiv, the team had a number of glaring issues.

First of all, there was an unreasonable number of deadwood, players who should have been sent external a long time ago. And I’m not talking golden oldies, I’m talking 33 years old 85 rated kind of players, who have no market value and offer little on the field.

Secondly, we had no star players. Our best player was Raphael Veiga 29/89. While he has a respectable rating, 29 year olds playing in Brazil can sometimes be hard to move in SM. Other high rated players consisted of oldies such as Nemanja Matic or Choupo Moting, definitely nothing to write home about.

Thirdly, our lineup included players as low as 86 rated, which should not be the case for a div 4 club.

Our first move was riding the team of external deadwood and filling up the created space with promising youngsters. We managed to scout some really talented teenagers who are still part of our youth team or were traded for more established players. I think as a manager in SM, being able to scout the external market is the most important skill, as you are creating value out of thin air. If  you keep an influx of external players coming to your team, you are always making your team better and more attractive for other managers to deal with you.

We kept around 12-13 first team players during my first season at Lokomotiv.  This was extremely hard to deal with as injuries and suspensions often meant we had to field players as low as 82 rated, but we managed to survive the season with ease. During my second season (the current one), we managed to build a solid bench consisting mostly of 87/86 rated players. This has allowed us to keep a good position in the league and even trying for promotion. As a reminder preseason rankings had us ranked as the weakest team in all of Top 100!

This season we are alternating between our main team and youth team. Many younger players have been sacrificed for golden oldies. As an example, Gueye, Stepanenko, Dudu, Aguilar etc were acquired rerently in exchange for youths. We don’t want to be bottom dwellers and bullshit about having a long term project, which sadly happens quite often in Top 100. We believe that main team and youth team can go hand by hand, and that’s what we’re trying to do in here.

Our starting lineup now does have quite a few older players, however they will slowly be replaced with younger players of decent rating. We have a lot of young gems who at due time will be traded for U25 players with ratings good enough for our first team. At this moment we have three U22 year olds in our lineup. The goal is to have a full 11 of such players and slowly get rid of the golden oldies who while they contribute in the field, they also take valuable squad space. Since I haven’t completed such a lineup yet, my youth team will have to take the hit in terms of trades. Once we have the starting lineup we envision, then we can think about hoarding youth and letting them develop in our team, without having to give them away.

Below are the players which at the moment I consider the highlights of Lokomotiv:

Debast 20/87 – After a rocky start at Sporting he has earned himself a starting spot while putting up some very good performances. With Sporting running the league and getting good results in Europe, I expect his rating and value to only go one way.

Hartman 22/88 – Unlucky with a knee injury last May, but he’s an amazing player. Had earned himself a starting position for the Dutch national team and interest from European top clubs. I’m sure he’ll continue to impress once back from injury.

Turrientes 22/87 – A recent acquisition, joined us in exchange for Daichi Kamada. Very young and decently rated, Turrientes is slowly becoming an integral part of our midfield.

Cassierra 27/88 – Cassierra is the focal point of our attack. He scored 21 goals in the Russian League last season and 4 so far this one. We’re quite with both his SM and irl performances.

Moving on to our youth team:

Gabriel Carvalho – Probably the most exciting player I have on my youth team. Only recently turned 17 and has already become a starter for SC Internacional in Brazilian Serie A. He is the next big thing to come out of Brazil. Has a release clause of 60m and reportedly Arsenal already offered 25m + addons for him this summer.  I expect him to move for considerably more than that, his value grows day by day as he impresses on the pitch. Many Top 100 managers have made offers or inquired for him, but their offers have been miles off. We’re always open to offers, but this guy isn’t leaving for cheap, it would take an insanely good deal to consider moving him.

Batrakov – One of my favorite players from the youth team. Picked up him external at the end of last season and already he’s become a cult hero irl at Lokomotiv. At what’s practically his first season, he has been without a single doubt the best player in the league. 13 Goals + Assists in 11 games so far, keeping in mind that some of the games he has started as a central midfielder. Got his first call up for the Russian national team last international break. Sky is the limit for Batrakov and I’m very excited to see how far he will go. He already got a +12 in game couple of days ago and a nice transfermarkt update few days back.

Bazoumana Toure – The young Ivorian winger broke out this season in the Swedish league, playing for high flying  Hammarby. He has been an integral part of the team’s success with his 7 goals and 3 assists. Toure’s value grows with every match he plays and he’s surely destined for a top 5 league transfer very soon.

Watjen – The young german midfielder debuted for Dortmund last season and impressed with his performances. He’s yet to get minutes this season but I’m sure he’ll get his chance later on. I have full confidence in his talent and I think this year he’ll make himself known. Loads of interest for him from other managers but he’s not moving for peanuts. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Hekimoglu – Very impressive 17 year old striker for Besiktas. Already getting decent minutes in the league and in Europe. Made his debut scoring a goal against Galatasaray in the supercup, quite the debut for a teenager.

Epolo – The 19 year old Belgian GK has earned himself a starting spot at Standard Liege, while putting up impressive numbers. GKs usually bloom at a later age so the fact that he’s broken into the first team at 19 speaks volumes of his talent.

Norbye – 17 year old Norwegian CB who made his debut in the Bundesliga last season for RB Leipzig, being one of the youngest players to do so. He got some minutes during preseason friendlies but so far he hasn’t appeared in any Bundesliga games for the 24/25 season. However, at 17 years old, he’s got all the time in the world. The talent is there and he’s one to keep an eye on.

Biereth – 21 year old Danish striker playing for Sturm Graz. He already played a key role last season in ending Salzburg’s dominance in the league, while this season he’s also been on fire scoring 7 in 9 games.

Honorable mentions go to Reitan-Sunde, Granaas, Charlie Hughes, Kurtulus, Bischoff, Poku, Chiwome, Kim etc.

It should be mentioned that every player of the Lokomotiv I inherited has either gone external or traded away, a full overhaul has been done and every player in the team has been handpicked by me. I’m very excited to see the team develop further and I’m sure we can make something great here.