The words about the concept in yesterday's report on the Dynamo match are not just that. Yesterday, apparently, it finally became clear that one should not expect an enchanting game from this Dynamo. Brugge, Ferencváros, Fenerbahce, Sturm... Mircea Lucescu's Dynamo always got results with a very restrained, cautious, rational game. This is the face of the current Dynamo. And attempts to go into "free swimming", as last year with Barça, took place only in fights where there was nothing to lose in advance.
Mircea Lucescu. Photo: fcdynamo.comThe Dynamo squad is four times more expensive than the Sturm squad. The Kyivans spend the 27th (!) season in the Champions League since Independence, while for Sturm this is only the seventh such season in history. The Dynamo coach has worked in five different European championships, including Serie A. The Sturm mentor has never been anywhere but Austria. And still, Dynamo acted very restrained and cautious.
997 TTA, twelve shots on goal and 1.12 expected goals (xG) - this is definitely not about extravaganza. This can be called dominance, but only on the condition that the opponent's game plan failed. The idea of "Sturm" was easy to read already in the first minutes: high pressure, a quick goal, then - the maximum density in their own half of the field. Everything fell to ruins after Karavaev's goal. It fell apart in such a way that Sturm lost faith in getting a non-losing result (demonstrative substitutions in the second half - the players jogging, slowly, left the field), and lost self-control (demonstrative throwing by the captain of the armband when leaving the field). Although the question remains open: how would the game go if Sturm converted one of their three chances that arose in the first 25 minutes of the game.
Then Bushchan saved twice (after the blows of Khairlander and Hoylund) and once the opponent simply did not hit from a deadly position (Hoylund). This was enough for 0.75 xG, which is slightly behind the "Dynamo". This, together with Prass's shot, was enough to generally surpass Dynamo in terms of hits on target. But this was not enough for Sturm to throw the Ukrainian team off balance.
In general, this task seems to be an extremely difficult task for the opponents of Mircea Lucescu's team. Fenerbahce played a huge part of the two matches against Dynamo in the attack, constantly kept Buschan in suspense and “licked” the goal frame, but still did not break the structure of the Ukrainian team. It took her four minutes of power play to score a goal. With Sturm, 65 positional attacks were enough to gain an advantage. With more than 65 percent possession of the ball.
Dynamo almost never had to play in the selection - only 23 attempts, of which thirteen were successful. This is because Sturm did not want to have the ball, and when he got it, he tried to quickly disperse the attack. The Austrians themselves, oddly enough, also did not enter the selection (only 19 attempts). They created echeloned pressure lines, however, they did not always keep up with the movements of Dynamo's full-backs. Which created problems for the Austrians, and gave the Ukrainians an advantage.
Dubinchak has a miserable seven martial arts (the smallest in the team after Vivcharenko, Garmash and Vanat who came on as a substitute), but as many as 94 assists. Of which one became an assist, despite the fact that official sources recorded an assist on Besedin due to his touching the ball. During the match, Vladislav, like Kendzer, made only one foul, which is atypical for flank defenders. But here it is rather a question for the opponent, who did not impose a fight.
Playing a pass is generally a separate conversation in the context of yesterday's match. None of Dynamo's creative plan players made more than 55 (!) passes in total. Shaparenko has 97 of them, but he played deep, almost on the line with Sergei Sidorchuk, just above the central defenders. The ball was best kept at the feet of Popov, Zabarny and Shaparenko. Dubinchak was fourth in this indicator.
Many criticize Besedin, but he played useful. Of the fifteen gears, all are accurate. In fact, these are the requirements of Mircea Lucescu, who, back at Shakhtar, practiced pulling the attacker (mainly Luis Adriano) deep into or to the flank and his active participation not in completing, but in constructing attacks. In addition, Besedin became the leader of Dynamo (together with Shaparenko and Karavaev) in terms of the number of shots on goal (three), which indicates his ability, despite the specific functions on the field, to choose the right position. Well, martial arts are generally Artyom's calling card. The leader of Dynamo and the second player of the match in terms of the number of duels held (19). Six martial arts won in the air - with a margin the best indicator in the team.
Well, Karavaev's personality... Perhaps the most striking evidence of the Dynamo concept game. He became a goal scorer, one of the most useful players on the team in terms of fouls earned on himself, shots on goal, participation in scoring chances. Scored the highest xG score among Dynamo players (“expected goals”). Provided that he was not considered a base player and was released from the first minutes only due to Tsygankov's injury. Performers may change even at the last moment, but the structure remains stable. This is the style, concept, dogmatism.
Mircea Lucescu at the post-match press conference said what was on the lips of most of those who watched the game and were worried about the fate of Dynamo - it's a pity that they didn't score more. Despite the unsuccessful start of the match, there was every chance to close the issue of reaching the playoffs in Poland. But this is also part of today's Dynamo image. This is not the team that will take everything here and now. This is a team that knows how and loves to endure, for which suffering on the field is not something humiliating. You will have to endure (who knows, perhaps suffer) in a week and in Austria. But there is nothing wrong with that.
Igor SEMYON
