STARTING XI
REMAINING SQUAD MEMBERS
3 best players not in the squad:
Prior to the Russian national team, if a player was born in Russia and played only for the Soviet Union national team, then I considered them here. In 1960, the Soviet Union won the first European Championship, while they had their best World Cup result in 1966, reaching the semi-finals. 8 Russian players make it from these teams. As Russia, their best results were reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2008 and quarter-finals of the World Cup 2018. Lev Yashin is considered the greatest goalkeeper of all-time, while Rinat Dasayev and Yevhen Rudakov are also generational. Goalkeeper is the strongest area of the squad, whereas the right-back position was weak, no-one particularly stood out. Aleksandr Anyukov was close to making it here. The midfield 3 picked itself, while Starostin and Mostovoi are enough to cover them. Cherenkov starts with Arshavin acting as his back-up, while Fedotov covers Bobrov and Streltsov upfront. Chislenko can also be an option as a striker, who I chose because he was the best player not yet included, while Simonyan was the next pick with this criteria. Chislenko helped because I needed a right-wing option for the squad. Starostin wasn't a vital player to have the the squad due to Maslyonkin's ability to cover as a holding midfielder, but he fit the balance of the squad nicely, and there wasn't much between him and the other players who missed out. Players by Decade: 1960's (6), 1950's (6), 1980's (2), 1970's (2), 1940's (2), 2010's (1), 2000's (1), 1990's (1), 1980's (1), 1930's (1) Top 10 Russian Players of All-Time (World Class Players in Bold - 9)
(& their all-time positional rank)
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