Euro 2016: What do we know about Russia, who are their star players and why is their manager working for free?

Russia find themselves in a similar situation to England four years ago, but shy of their best players, can they really make an impact at Euro 2016?

Leonid Slutsky oversees Russia's training session ahead of their Euro 2016 opener with England (Getty)

Slutsky ‘the new Mourinho’

Roy Hodgson will have some sympathy with his counterpart Leonid Slutsky, and how hard the job is that he has taken on. Just over four years ago Hodgson was hurriedly drafted in to replace Fabio Capello and had to prepare the England team for Euro 2012.

The Russian Football Federation appointed Capello soon after on a £5.5million annual salary they could hardly afford. Capello was sacked last summer and replaced by CSKA Moscow coach Slutsky, who took the job on a part-time basis and for free, trying to turn the team’s fortunes around.

Slutsky’s job was even harder than Hodgson’s in 2012, because Russia had not already qualified. He had to motivate the bored, tired players again but did so, leading them to a run of four straight wins that took Russia to second place in Group G. “In Russia he is called ‘the new Mourinho’”, said Russian journalist Konstantin Tihov. “He did not play football so began coaching young and is very strong tactically.”

Slutsky wants his Russia team to play like his CSKA team, with many of the same players, and with CSKA having won this year’s Russian Premier League they looked well set to do that. The star of the side was Alan Dzagoev, CSKA’s brilliantly imaginative box-to-box midfielder. He is the best Russian player of his generation and was set to be their key man in France.

Russia ravaged by injury

But last month Dzagoev got injured and now Slutsky cannot build his team around him. Worse was to follow with the news that his most experienced midfielder Igor Denisov would miss out too. Denisov was part of Dick Advocaat’s great Zenit St Petersburg side that won the 2008 UEFA Cup, although he now plays for Dynamo Moscow, but he will not be there to direct the game from the middle of the pitch.

What this means is that Slutsky has to rebuild a midfield almost from scratch, without his two most reliable performers there. He still has Roman Shirokov, another Zenit veteran, now at 34 playing for Slutsky at CSKA, but he is unfit and unlikely to start.

Who to look out for

So Slutsky is set to turn to the hurriedly-nationalised Roman Neustadter in midfield instead. The 28-year-old was born in what is now Ukraine to German parents – his father played for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk – and even played two games for Germany. But the Schalke defender, who can also play in midfield, received a Russian passport last month, made his debut last week, and will start in Marseille tomorrow.

“Russian performance at the Euros hugely depends on midfield and whether Slutsky can find the right combination of players, there” says Ivan Kalashnikov of Sports.ru. “The problem is there is no holding midfielder after Denisov’s injury, only Neustadter who is completely new to the team and spent last season playing as a centre-half.”

If Slutsky can just find the answer to this problem then he has the basis of a competitive team. The defensive core of the team remains the same as ever, with Igor Akinfeev in goal and two veteran centre-backs in Sergei Iganshevich and Vasili Berezutski. That gives them an experienced base and in attacking positions they have goal-scorers too.

Alan Dzagoev's absence will hurt Russia's hopes (Getty) (Getty Images)

In the absence of Dzagoev, Oleg Shatov is their most talented player, and whether he is used in midfield or up front will define Slutsky’s approach to the game. Artem Dzyuba is the totemic centre-forward but Aleksandr Kokorin and Fyodor Smolov either side of him could be at least as dangerous. Were it not for the hole in the middle, then, this would be a good Russian team. Slutsky has already worked wonders picking up the post-Capello pieces, but preparing them for Saturday could be even harder than that.