The unloading of the roster and the revision of salaries for Kazakh players opened up another opportunity for many pupils of Kairat to prove themselves in the main team. The bbabo.net correspondent tells which of them can sparkle under the leadership of Kurban Berdyev.
Daniyar Usenov, attacking midfielder/forward
A native of Aktau starts his third season in the main team of "Kairat", and every year his playing time increases. At the last winter training camp, Kurban Berdyev used Usenov as close as possible to the striker's position. Previously, Daniyar still gravitated more to the center of the field, but good physical data and a shot, probably, inspired the coaching staff to such an option. In the match against Sochi, Usenov scored from the penalty spot and on this his goals at the training camp were limited. Perhaps Daniyar was considered as a replacement for Artur Shushenachev, who was one step away from leaving the club, but in the end this did not happen. The competition in the Kairat attack, despite the departure of many players, remains the highest, because legionnaires such as Joao Paulo and José Kante remained in place.
Vyacheslav Shvyrev, forward/winger
The history of Shvyrev's career in "Kairat" is a solid sine wave. He made his first team debut back in 2018 under Carlos Alos, later sparkled brightly under Alexei Shpilevsky, and then a period of stagnation set in, where there were tests by the first league and the Russian FNL-2. But, literally in six months in "Kairat-Moscow" Shvyrev proved (8 effective actions in 12 matches) that he deserves a new chance at the base of Almaty. Stubborn striker strongly reminiscent of Dmitry Byakov in the manner of the game, can become the joker of “Kairat” this season, because this motivation is as high as ever.
Danil Ustimenko, goalkeeper
The many-year-old first issue of "Kairat" Stas Pokatilov did not fit into the new economic realities of the club, where now the salary cap for Kazakhstanis is one and a half million tenge. It was expected that "Kairat" will take an experienced Russian goalkeeper to replace him, but the scenario came out a little different. Almaty really took the goalkeeper from Russia, only he is quite young and came from his own branch - Moscow, his name is Vadim Ulyanov.
But for the time being, it seems that Kairat's graduate Danil Ustimenko, who got a lot of practice last year, will start the season at the base, but frankly speaking, his game did not look flawless. This is what Kairat Boranbaev said about his candidacy the other day: "It's hard to say that Ustimenko is young, he was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the first league three years ago, he has been in the main team for two years already."
Arsen Buranchiev, defender/midfielder
Last season for Arsene turned out to be a breakthrough in terms of the amount of playing time. The player was especially quoted by Kirill Keker, who often used Buranchiev even in important European Cup matches. Under Berdyev, the midfielder, like most young players, sat down on the bench.
In the off-season, largely due to personnel problems, Buranchiev was moved to the position of a central defender. Before the arrival of Viktor Vasin, it was Arsen who seemed to be the main partner for Maki Banyak in the center of defense. Let's see how the season will be, but it is likely that Buranchiev will be in an active rotation among the center backs.
Andrey Ulshin, central/winger
Like all of the above players, Ulshin has been working with the main team of Kairat for several seasons, but he is still far from the status of a rotation player. At the same time, Andrei will be 22 this year - the age at which it is necessary to play, and not sit on the bench. Ulshin will have to make extra efforts to get practice from Berdyev. In addition, the player must improve in many aspects, because so far his functionality does not seem to be wide enough, and the main skills are the execution of set pieces and the working left foot.
bbabo.Net