Marked for Amin Khachaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Ramazan Aliev, 19, steals the show — 7.74
Marked 7.74 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
7.90, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ramazan Aliev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdulpasha Djabrailov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amin Khachaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anatoly Lipatov on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad30 Nov 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Dinamo Makhachkala 2 will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Arsen Shikhaliev
Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala 2 is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Arsen Shikhaliev damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Dinamo Makhachkala 2 are no longer polite ones.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Zainudin Zainudinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Amin Khachaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.41. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Anatoly Lipatov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Makhachkala 2 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Ramazan Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ramazan Aliev provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ramazan Aliev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Dinamo Makhachkala 2 are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Oct 2026
Legion left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Magomed Abdullabekov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zainudin Zainudinov, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Anatoly Lipatov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Amin Khachaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Zainudin Zainudinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Dinamo Makhachkala 2 are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Amin Khachaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match26 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kyzyltash defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
A 0‑4 beating by Nart was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Magomed Ibragimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Amin Khachaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Dinamo Makhachkala 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anatoly Lipatov after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Dinamo Makhachkala 2 have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.77 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 6.78, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Minute 92, against Astrakhan, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match8 Aug 2026
It needed Ramazan Magomedov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Astrakhan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Anatoly Lipatov chose the glass-half-full version of 3‑3; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.