Mykola Nesenyuk: "Coach Petrakov is finished"

Well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk spoke about the results of the match of the final round of the League of Nations between Ukraine and Scotland, which took place yesterday in Krakow (0:0).

"I always sympathized with this coach and football player - Petrakov once played for the team of my hometown. He was happy when his work with youth teams was crowned with the title of world champions. He believed that the years of humble, inconspicuous and thankless work with young football players gave him the right to get a chance to become the coach of the main football team of our country.

Petrakov led the national team at the worst time, but he did the almost impossible - he returned it to the fight for a ticket to the World Cup last fall.

And that's all. Then Petrakov ended for me as a coach. This happened when he first excluded Malinovsky from the team, and then changed his decision.

In this case, it did not matter who was right - the coach or the football player. I still don't know and it doesn't matter. It is important that the coach did not insist on his own and did not do it of his own free will. This mistake cost Petrakov the main authority in the team. Because when football players know that the coach does not decide everything, he is no longer an authority for them.

After the humiliating return of Malinovsky for the coach, the game of the national team of Ukraine no longer depended on the coach, but on the mood of the players, whom he could not but put in the squad, and they knew it.

There are no complaints against these football players - they tried their best. Another thing is that they could not do everything and not always.

In fact, the Ukrainian team played without a coach. This is not terrible - no brilliant coach will succeed with mediocre players. Unless by chance and only once. The coach of the national team should not teach football players to play - this is not possible in a few days! He only has to select the strongest at the moment and place them in the right places, without taking into account either the players' ambitions or the opinion of agents or football managers.

Petrakov could not do this. He allowed himself to be led, to involve himself in the not always understandable maneuvers of football bureaucrats. And ended long before yesterday's game with Scotland.

We could have been lucky and we could have won. But it wouldn't change anything. Petrakov may even stay, because it seems to suit everyone. And we will have to continue to hope for luck, rooting for the Ukrainian team. There is no one to hope for anymore. Because coach Petrakov is over, and someone else who would have the appropriate abilities and authority among the players is not yet visible.

One thing pleases me - there will definitely be no winners of the "golden ball" among the candidates!" Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.