Dick Advocaat's Zenit St Petersburg side of 2008 gives Sunderland fans hope

Dick Advocaat’s managerial CV is a broad and at times random-looking patchwork of clubs, countries and short-lived excursions to jobs in Asia. At first glance it’s difficult to see where how he fits in at Sunderland, given their current predicament.

The Dutchman has no experience of managing in the Premier League and, to his credit, he has never been embroiled in the sort of relegation scrap he now faces.

But while Sunderland fans might be scratching their heads at his rapid appointment on Tuesday, they should take encouragement from the fact that it was Advocaat who assembled one of the most attacking and under-rated sides in the past decade of European football.

Should he keep Sunderland up, could he replicate the team he created at Zenit St Petersburg in 2007/08?  

That side was overshadowed by Barcelona’s emerging golden generation, but anyone who followed them in the UEFA Cup that season will remember that the standard of football they produced was frequently right up there with that on show at the Nou Camp.

Zenit, the defending Russian champions, were actually below-par in domestic competition, finishing only fifth in 2008, yet their performances and results in European competition more than compensated.

It is relevant to point out that this Zenit side was not an expensively assembled outfit packed full of Brazilians and other overseas imports, as Russian sides were at the time and continue to be, but rather a very much home-grown unit.

The regular starting line-up contained only three non-Russians – all of whom were from Eastern European countries - and Advocaat deployed them in the 4-5-1 system that had still to fully catch on in western Europe.

In goal was Vyacheslav Malafeev, who was protected by a solid centre-back pairing of Roman Shirokov and Ivica Krizanac. The full-backs were the marauding Aleksandr Anyukov on the right and the Czech Republic’s Radek Sirl, complete with a potent left foot for both crossing and shooting, on the other side.

Shielding the back four was the outstanding Ukrainian Anatoliy Tymoschuk, and in front of him was a quartet of small but superbly skilled and mobile midfielders who regularly interchanged positions but usually started as Viktor Fayzulin on the right, Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov in the centre and Andrei Arshavin – later of Arsenal fame - cutting in from the left.

Up front was Pavel Pogrebnyak, who at times resembled Didier Drogba in the way he held up the ball, bullied defenders and banged in the goals.

Zenit were actually fortunate to get out of their UEFA Cup group, finishing only third of five teams, and squeezed past both Villareal and then Marseille on away goals in the last 32 and last 16, but from thereon in they were ruthless.

In the quarter-finals they demolished Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 at the BayArena in one of the performances of the season, the highlights of which were Arshavin’s wonderful solo effort to opening the scoring and Denisov rounding off a sublime team move for the fourth.

That was enough to see them through to a semi-final tie against Bayern Munich. After a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena in the first leg, Zenit ran riot in the return, drubbing a team managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld and containing the likes of Lucio, Franck Ribery, Philipp Lahm and Bastain Schweinsteiger 4-0.

Rangers were next in the final in Manchester, but the Scottish side barely laid a glove on Zenit, who won with ease 2-0 thanks to second-half goals from Zyryanov and Denisov.

Zenit later went on to beat Manchester United 2-1 in the 2008 European Super Cup, but the team fell into decline the following year, with Arshavin leaving for Arsenal in January 2009 and then Advocaat being sacked in August that year.

Zenit were far from perfect under the Dutchman, but at times the attacking football they played was it good as it gets.

For Sunderland fans who have seen only 23 league goals all season, that should offer some hope.

Watch Dick Advocaat's first game in charge of Sunderland at West Ham on Saturday Night Football, from 4.45pm

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