Russia’s and CSKA Moscow’s number one goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev (pictured) is in risk of losing his top spot in the FTBL ranking of Russian keepers to rival Vyacheslav Malafeev of Zenit St. Petersburg.
Akinfeev has lost 15 rating points in the last month alone to see his overall FTBL rating drop to 74.14 points. In the meantime, Malafeev has boosted his tally by 30 rating points, to 71.46 points.
The CSKA Moscow keeper will face a daunting plank of 27.8 rating points in his next five games against very tough opposition: two games in the Caucasus, two games against Premier League giants Manchester United, and a game against FC Moskva.
We predict Akinfeev’s overall rating will not exceed 80 rating points by mid November, although he is more likely to retain the top spot in the ranking. Fact is, even though Malafeev will have to “defend” just 4 rating points, 4 of them will be in games in which he will have to avoid conceding a goal: it seems very unlikely Zenit will stretch their winning streak to five games. But if that happens, the Zenit keeper could overtake Akinfeev not only as the top goalkeeper in the Russian League, but also as the last man behind in the Russian national team.
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