Gameday in Krasnodar for the round 14 of the FNL between Kuban & Orenburg.

Kuban was a team known in the past as they were playing in russian premier league, they played in Europa League, they got famous french striker Djibril Cissé but in 2018 the club went bankrupt. Then after they made a new club with new license and they started from third division.

Last year they made a huge season with investment and they good very strong results and could be promoted. This season is a nightmare for them with the last place of the table with 2 wins, 2 draws & 9 losses. Awful defense with 22 goals conceded in 13 games.

They just come from a game lost against Tomsk where they played good but their weakness defensively is important. Their Vladimir Maminov said that he is really not happy about his team, in press conference he said that his players desire to win but the quality of how they play is poor, that offensively they are missing a lot and defensively they are giving easy opportunities to the opponent.

Their roster is pretty weak, they have just few players who already had experienced from the russian premier league as Rybin, Klimovich & Gritsaenko.

Kuban added a new player but he isn't there yet.

On their side Orenburg is a favorite this season to be promoted in russian premier league. Two season ago they were already in premier league and then they were relegated. On last season they directly made a huge season to go back in premier league and they finished second of the league, they could be promoted due to administrative reason it's why they are again in FNL this seaosn.

The good thing for them is that the management didn't give up and they are aiming the promotion for this season. Not by far but they have the bigger budget of the FNL.

As I said they were in premier league before and since the relegation they kept a lot of players from that time. For FNL they have good players as :

Very experienced defenders Oyewole & Malykh, Young bosnian defender who already played pro in Croatia & Bosnia, Kovalev who joined them from Arsenal Tula, midfielder Ayupov, young belarus midfielder Kaplenko former Zenit, young Titkov former Loko, Fameyeh ghanean striker who is there since their premier league season.

The fight at the top of the table will not be easy for Orenburg this season with team as SKA, Torpedo etc. So they really have to take 3 points against such a weak team.

Tactically they have an advantage that they are coached by Liczka Marcel who already coached on higher level than Kuban's coach Totchiline.

Today they are going with an offensive 4-3-3 with Kenyaykin, Sivakov, Gojkovic, Malykh, Ektov, Ayupov, Kaplenko, Breev, Shabolin, Fameyeh & Kovalev.

Kuban will have to play an offensive game as they really need points, Orenburg will be able to take advantage from their weakness defensively.

I expect 0-2.