Opening
On 16 August, after the 1:2 against Spartak, Andrei Talalaev said the line that spread across every feed within a day: "Some teams bring national-team players off the bench, and some bring Pospelov" (Sportbox).
The phrase was read as a verdict: here is the gap in resources, here is poor Baltika with a kid in the 85th minute. But that same evening Talalaev added a second part that was barely quoted: "Had he played it across the goal in that last moment, three players were open." That is not about poverty. It is about the demand placed on a player expected to make decisions, not merely to be present.
