The question "what is the reason for the unsuccessful performances of Dynamo" is definitely tired of football fans with experience. For the last 20 years, it has been on the agenda permanently, with breaks for short-term successes. Successes that usually make a beautiful wrapper.
Photo: fcdynamo.comOne of these breaks literally ended in August this year, when the "white and blue" began their unsuccessful streak of five consecutive defeats. From the last 7 matches, Kyiv lost 6, conceding 14 goals and scoring only 4. However, the first hints of something bad were even before the start of a full-scale war...
The championship after minus 23 from Shakhtar really looked like a breath of fresh air. But at the same time it was a little misleading. And in this material, we will present our thoughts and conclusions from the latest "white-blue" fiascos.
A failed transfer campaign
There are several reasons for this phenomenon.
First and foremost: the selection service and the president of "Dynamo" rarely conduct it differently. Banal, but a fact. And this is the main explanation. Here, you will not "wash off" the war against a terrorist state, because over the past couple of decades, strong and successful transfer windows have been held in Dynamo a countless number of times.
The second: in the state of "white and blue" it seems and really believed that the team became the champion even before the start of the season. The flight of the legionnaires from "Shakhtar" winged the Kyiv club and made them forget about any reinforcements, at a time when the "miners" themselves began to collect Ukrainians (albeit not the strongest) all over Europe.
We will not pathetically say that the composition of the "orange-black" has become more high-class than that of "Dynamo" (banal: far from all of these footballers are even included in the extended list of the national team), but the starting position has come down to almost nothing. If we draw a parallel, we can say that the same joke was played on the people of Kyiv as at the beginning of zero, when they did not see competitors even on the horizon. Only now, from the height of this horizon, it was not even possible to win something significant.
The departure of Benjamin Verbych aggravated the problem, because all the left midfielders of "Dynamo" were already legionnaires. Where Pena and Vitinho left immediately, the Slovenian left after a good offer from Panathinaikos. And at the time when Shakhtar signed three Ukrainian wingers, nominal center Shepelev played on the left in attack in Dynamo for five whole matches.
Already later, after the first failures, the signings of Kabaev and Parris (who still has not appeared on the field, even taking into account the presence of game tone and personnel problems of Dynamo itself) and the return of the runaway son Diallo took place.
And the Kyivans still haven't resolved the issue of the center forward. The eternally injured and "goalless" Supryaga (even after the adventures in Genoa), the still incomprehensible (can't find another word) Besedin, is still not 100% ready for the role of the main Vanat. In addition, the latter, for obvious reasons, is often used in the position of the left winger.
It can be said a billion times that in Lucescu's football, the central striker does not play the same role as the player "under him" (Mkhitaryan, Teixeira, Buyalskyi), but this does not mean that he is not needed as a phenomenon. Even in the "Brazilian" Shakhtar, the Romanian always had a tip, who knew how to "put his foot" in time to complete the combinations. "Dynamo" does not have such a player.
Shaparenko's injury opened another problem - the center of the field. For Sydorchuk and Mykola, there are only two alternatives - the aforementioned Shepelev (who occasionally has to be used on the left) and Andrievsky.
Both have not progressed from the word "at all" for several years, and every appearance on the field of these players, even against mediocre UPL teams, ends with a sea of questions. And if the issue of the flanks was half-way solved, then we will not be surprised if Yatsyk or Tsarenko become the base players in the near future. And whether they will manage to do it as quickly as Zabarny at the time, no one can know.
All these facts cannot help but fall from the heavens to the earth. In modern football, a loss in the transfer market will almost always lead to a loss on the football field.
You can't leave to fire
"Dynamo" is once again faced with the coaching issue. Lucescu's appointment gave a short-term result, but the first "swallows" began to arrive last season.
From the very beginning, this decision of the Surkis did not look like a strategic move, with the idea of building some kind of concept in the club. Actually, this should not have been expected from the always "chaotic" owner of the club.
As of September 2022, it is difficult to understand what Dynamo and Lucescu can give each other. The naked eye can see that the players of the Kyiv club no longer absorb his words, as they said themselves, like a sponge. The Romanian's toxicity at press conferences often reaches its peak - no one takes his constant whining about refereeing and rival players from his mouth. And statements about the "innocence of Russian athletes" make one doubt the correctness of those who were previously on the side of the Romanian in his conflict with the ultras.
It is "Dynamo" that can no longer be an opportunity for the 77-year-old mentor to prove something to someone. To himself that he is still capable of working at a high level, to Shakhtar that they did not continue their cooperation with him for nothing, and to the most principled fans of Dynamo that he does not give in under their pressure.
At the end of the 2020/21 season, there were thoughts that Lucescu should leave immediately. The reason is simple - this way he will definitely do it as an absolute winner.
At that time, it seemed that the Romanian coach was capable of winning again and again. We don't know how last season would have ended if it weren't for a full-scale Russian invasion. However, the subsequent course of events showed that a small minority was also right. At least, for Lucescu himself, it would definitely be much more correct to do so. Because now he definitely won't go "on a horse".
And the worsening of Dynamo's results, of course, was not only due to Lucescu's fault. Personnel work is clearly not part of his responsibilities.
By the way, a fundamental question: which of the players who joined "Dynamo" after the championship season were able to become concrete core players in the team? Hiba Dubinchak, who returned from his loan at Dnipro-1. And exclusively because of Mykolenko's departure. But that's yes, a lyrical digression.
"Who instead?" is a logical question that critics will ask after this paragraph. And the whole lyric is that the Romanian remains the best of the worst options. He needs to "break up" with Dynamo even more than Dynamo needs him.
Currently, the only logical alternative for Kyiv is Igor Kostyuk. And no one can say what the transition from youth to adult football will look like in his case.
Considering that the Surkis like to take risks, they can go for this move. They can also release Lucescu at one moment: trivially remember the "case" of Blokhin, whom (along with journalists and fans) the younger of the brothers assured in each of the comments of one hundred percent trust, until another shameful match happened.
The option with Kostyuk can "shoot", as in the case of Rebrov - perhaps the only coach of "Dynamo" after the death of Lobanovskyi, who wanted to build a club (not just a team, which is very important) for a long distance.
The principles of Mr. Igor's work in U-19 indicate a good understanding of modern football and a desire to play, not just to win. He knows all the Dynamo youth. But it can also be another failure, which will be crowned with a billion memes and jokes about "dynamo hearts" - in which there is nothing wrong with the phenomenon. The bad thing is their "irrational use" by the club management.
What's next?
This question has been asked at least in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2020. And every time the top management of "Dynamo" made different decisions. Different, but at the same time so the same. Very often they were illogical, but sometimes they hit "on the tenth". And sometimes they seemed to come out of common sense (still with a lot of questions), but ended in fiascos.
Making predictions for Dynamo's future is like making weather forecasts for April in September. To tell which day it will rain, and which day the sun will shine 24 hours a day. In none of the above-mentioned years, no one gave a forecast for the coming years, which is called "on the spot".
The root cause is unlikely to be eliminated. And we are talking not only about the president, but also about dozens of "representatives" of failed management and scouts. And these are the realities in which we live.
The best success here and now will be a situational "hit" and another eye candy. As practice shows, for a maximum of 3 years. The world is cyclical, and Dynamo's problems are no exception.
Hleb Skrypchenko
