Lucescu is Dynamo's trump card, but he can also become a key weakness

In the summer of 2020, the appointment of Mircea Lucescu as the head coach of Dynamo was, obviously, the most successful personnel decision of the president of the club, Igor Surkis, over the past 5-10 years at least. The "White-Blues" were in dire need of a shake-up, which only a serious "outside" mentor could bring. Stories with "Dynamo hearts" led to the fact that Shakhtar for four years in a row (three with Paulo Fonseca and one with Luis Castro) took the "gold" of the national championship without any problems, forcing their principled opponent to be content with not at all prestigious as for people of Kiev "silver".

With Lucescu, Dynamo immediately showed the result, becoming the champion in the debut season for the Romanian specialist. Moreover, even in the UPL-2021/22, the draw of which was never completed due to the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Kyiv team looked at least as good as Shakhtar, which swelled huge amounts of money into updating the team by inviting a number of serious football players, as well as the Italian tactical geek Roberto De Zerbi. If that draw in the spring had been played out, then who knows, the Pitmen's young coach would have been able to overtake the seasoned opponent Lucescu...

Before the start of the 2022/23 season, it was Dynamo, which had undergone minimal personnel perturbations, led by Mircea Lucescu, who, without exception, were called the main favorite in the Premier League by all serious football experts without exception. However, already at the start, the people of Kiev showed a serious "slipping" when they could not get a single point in two matches... Yes, the rivals of the White-Blues were Dnipro-1 and Zorya - teams of a very good level in terms of by the standards of Ukrainian football, but one cannot discount the fact that Dynamo lost the last five, and if we take into account only regular time, then six fights in a row!.. whether at all is a question that requires an in-depth immersion in statistics and history, but does not provide any benefit in terms of causal relationships.

That is why much more attention should be paid to the last words and behavior of Mircea Lucescu. For example, after the defeat from Fenerbahce (1:2) in the first round of the group stage of the Europa League, the Romanian coach said that he did not want to analyze the game, because he saw not football, but bullfighting on the field. A little earlier, after a crushing and sensational defeat from Dnipro-1 (0:3), Lucescu said in his heart that that game could be his last as a coach of Kiev...

Subsequently, Mircea admitted that after losing to the Dnipros, he was subjected to emotions, saying something not entirely thought out. It is possible that in a couple of weeks and regarding the post-match statements in Turkey, the Romanians will consider it necessary to make certain clarifications. After all, Dynamo itself, in the starting 15 minutes against Fenerbahce on the road, set a very serious bar for violations of the rules. The statistics of this time period according to the specified component is eloquent - 7:3 in the "favor" of the Ukrainian team, and these "rules of the game" were simply adopted by the Turks, who, moreover, really wanted to get even with Dynamo for dropping out of the Champions League qualification. ..

In fact, right now we see how Mircea Lucescu, who was and still is the main trump card of Dynamo, is turning into almost the key weakness of the Kyivans. This is because the Romanian, probably, cannot yet properly cope with all the difficulties that have befallen his club in particular, and all Ukrainian football in general. And this is not guesswork or slander at all. Let's just look into the recent past in order to understand that there was already something similar in Mircea's career, and it ended not at all rosy in terms of the results of the specialist's work...

So, in the summer of 2016, Shakhtar Donetsk, after 12 years of cooperation, announced the resignation of Mircea Lucescu from the post of head coach of the team. This decision was extremely difficult for the owner of the Pitmen, Rinat Akhmetov, who managed, as they say, to stick to the Romanian coach with all his heart, with whom he had a very warm personal relationship. But the management of Shakhtar approached the issue of the expediency of parting with Lucescu very carefully. Prior to that, for two years, the Pitmen had consistently lost the championship to Dynamo, although since 2009 they have been the best team in Ukraine for five years in a row.

What changed for Lucescu at Shakhtar then? First of all, these are conditions. Due to the war in Donbass, the Pitmen were forced to start wandering around Ukraine in search of a permanent place of deployment. Lviv, and Kharkov, and Kyiv acted like that... Mircea, who was already close to seventy, simply could not stand such a rhythm. He wanted to calmly, monotonously and purposefully prepare his team for football matches, and not solve a bunch of secondary tasks and problems that had little to do with the game. Constant flights, moving, changes of scenery put psychological pressure not only on the player, but also on the coach, who simply could not cope with all this.

Saying goodbye to Lucescu, Rinat Akhmetov made it clear that the Romanian coach, from the point of view of the management of the Donetsk club, squeezed absolutely everything out of himself. The Pitmen's president said that Lucescu needs new challenges, while Shakhtar needs fresh blood. The remaining sentiments did not matter at all and were needed solely for the correct "picture" of the civilized parting of the parties after such a long cooperation.

The fact that the key reason for Lucescu's departure from Shakhtar was precisely the conditions of club life that had changed due to the war was also stated by the agent of the Romanian coach Arkady Zaporozhanu.

“Why did Lucescu leave Shakhtar? Because of the situation in Ukraine. Because of the nomadic way of life of the miners in the last two years. Difficulties arose with attracting new players to fulfill high tournament tasks," Zaporozhanu noted.

At Dynamo, Lucescu initially got what he previously had for success in Donetsk - the opportunity to establish a clear club vertical that works for the benefit of the first team. At hand, the Romanian had his own training base, and many fields, and an academy, where he could look for the much-needed replenishment for the first team in the difficult economic realities. In the end, Dynamo could play home matches in Kyiv, both within the UPL and within the European Cups.

Much of this turned out to be inaccessible to Mircea after the start of the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Home matches in European competitions became such only nominally for Dynamo... It also happened in the native UPL (the match of the 2nd round with Dnipro-1 took place in Lviv) and you will probably have to play games not at home at all in Kyiv, and somewhere closer to the border with Poland - solely for the sake of logistics.

It is logical that all this not only led to rumors about a difficult psychological situation within the team, but also to a certain deja vu effect for Mircea Lucescu himself. After leaving Shakhtar, he had an extremely hard time, and in terms of his career, he managed to improve the affairs of the Romanians only after returning to Ukraine, when he received Dynamo, sensationally for many. But now Mircea again has to cope with the same problems that once finished off his incredibly successful Donetsk stage. Even worse, if in 2014-2016 it was about numerous flights, now, due to circumstances within Ukraine, we can only talk about bus crossings. How great is the difference between these types of movements, perhaps, it is hardly worth saying further ...

The only thing that now makes the current stage for Lucescu brighter, so to speak, is constant contact with the president of the club. At Shakhtar, after a forced departure from Donetsk, Mircea was deprived of his usual regular contacts with Rinat Akhmetov, which he himself admitted publicly. At Dynamo, Igor Surkis is almost constantly in touch with Lucescu, which somehow contributes to at least the appearance of the former well-being...

At the end of July, Mircea Lucescu turned 77 years old. Looking at him, we can safely say that this solid mark is just a number in the passport, because the Romanian still retains an incredible desire to work in professional football. On the other hand, physiologically, with each year of life, a person needs more and more time to recover - physical, psychological, mental... If not for the war, there is no doubt that Lucescu could have worked out his contract without problems, calculated until the summer of 2024 , and bring a lot more benefits and titles to Dynamo. What will happen now? It's hard to say, although it is Dynamo, despite the unsuccessful start, that remains the undisputed favorite for the UPL championship. It is only important that the trump card remains so until the end of the game...

Alexey SLIVCHENKO