The silent conductor in Russian orchestra

Not for the first time, an air of dissatisfaction hangs over Russia.

They may have qualified for a major tournament at the top of their group for the first time, but there remains a sense that this team isn’t as good as it used to be and that a repeat of the heights of Euro 2008 is beyond them. Yet there is potential and a goal difference of 17-4 in 10 qualifying games suggests that, for all they seemed to lurch from one under-whelming performance to another, once they’d lost that early game at home to Slovakia, they found a way of getting the job done efficiently enough.

This is a side that has been together a long time. If Alexei Berezutsky replaces his injured brother Vassily at centre-back, all of the likely first XI apart from Alan Dzagoev either played at Euro 2008 or would have done but for injury or withdrawal. Six of the likely starting outfielders play for Zenit St Petersburg which means they should have a greater mutual understanding than just about any other side at the European Championships.

In fact, given Aleksandr Kerzhakov’s natural inclination to drop deep and operate almost as a false nine, with Andrei Arshavin and Dzagoev cutting in from the flanks, Aleksandr Anyukov and Yuri Zhirkov overlapping from full-back and Roman Shirokov, who scored five goals in the Champions League this season, breaking forward from midfield, Russia have the potential for incredibly fluent football.

They have shown flickers of that, most notably in last Friday’s 3-0 win over Italy and in the 3-2 win over Ireland in Dublin in October 2010 when they raced into a 3-0 lead after 50 minutes before panicking under a bombardment of long balls.

What makes the fluidity possible is the platform provided at the back of the midfield. Igor Denisov, who bafflingly turned down a call-up to the Russia squad at Euro 2008, only making his full debut for the national side in a World Cup qualifier the following October, was in superlative form as Zenit won the Russian championship. He has great energy, reads the game well and is robust in the tackle.

Alongside him, both for Zenit and Russia, is Konstantin Zyryanov, a quiet, efficient, often overlooked player who has racked up 50 caps since making his debut as a 28-year-old in 2006. He is a facilitator, somebody who specialises in keeping the ball moving, who scores only occasionally and who disdains tricks and flair for the calmly effective. Yet in many ways he is the most remarkable figure in the side.

In 2002, he hit rock-bottom. He had a difficult couple of years, losing his brother and his father, but it all got immeasurably worse when his 23-year-old wife plunged from the eighth floor of their apartment block in Moscow while holding the hand of their four-year-old daughter. His daughter died in hospital that evening, his wife a month later. She had been, tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, drunk. The coroner returned a verdict of suicide.

“She can’t have realised what she was doing,” Zyryanov said. “A normal person in a normal state of mind wouldn’t have done this.” Generally, though, he has remained silent on the issue. “Why should I bring this story up again?” he said. “Why should I drag it up for her parents? I don’t want to ramble on in the past. I have a new life now.”

That new life involves a new wife, a new city and a new club. He moved from Moscow to Zenit after Torpedo’s relegation in 2006 and was transformed back into the more creative midfielder he had been in his early days at Amkar Perm. The goals began to flow, which earned him his call up to Guus Hiddink’s national team and seemed to enable him to speak about his tragedy in public as he dedicated the first of two goals he scored against Ruch-Energia Vladivostok on Aug 11, 2007 to his new girlfriend, the second to “a little one who would have been nine on August 14”.

The following year, he won the UEFA Cup with Zenit, helped Russia to the semi-final of Euro 2008 and then, in the September, his new partner Natalia gave birth to a son they named Lev. He married Natalia on Jun 9, 2010 and, in Jan this year, they had a daughter, Polina.

As age has sapped at his legs, Zyryanov has dropped deeper again. His lack of pace could be a concern, but his positioning is good enough that, allied to his increasingly conservative role, it shouldn’t undermine Russia too much. “You can rely on him not only on the pitch but also in life,” said Vadim Nikonov, the head of Dick Advocaat’s coaching staff. “Players like him are the golden fund of any side. He’s a versatile player with the emphasis on defending, which should be better appreciated in modern football. How did he maintain this form when he’s 34 years old? Being in shape is not particularly hard when you do not do anything to damage yourself. I think Zyryanov is very professional.”

If Russia are to touch the heights of the wins over Sweden and Holland four years ago, Zyryanov is key.