On Saturday, November 26, in the match of the 15th round of the Ukrainian Championship, Dynamo Kyiv played a draw with Metalist 1925 Kharkiv with a score of 0:0. The meeting was held in Kyiv at the Dynamo Stadium named after Valery Lobanovsky. Your attention is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Mircea Lucescu. Photo — Y. YuryevMircea LUCHESCU, Dynamo head coach:
- Do you appoint penalty takers before the match? Or do the players themselves decide who will approach the “point”?
- Each team has a football player who performs these functions. Ours is Vitya Tsygankov. He is the first to approach the ball if he is on the field. When de Pena was on the team, he and Tsygankov alternated. Then we had more penalty takers, but now we have only one.
In the last match, he scored from the penalty spot, now - no. Penalties are always a lottery. The goalkeeper played well, guessed the direction of the blow. A penalty can be converted or not converted, but we had enough chances without it to score a goal.
Everything that happens in the game before the penalty area is training, this is my responsibility. But what happens inside the penalty area is the personality of each player. I am not talking now exclusively about the moment when Shepelev missed the goal from two meters. But the same Shepelev had a moment when he entered the penalty area with the ball, and he had to shoot.
The penalty area needs the personality of the player, his responsibility, skill, dribbling, hitting, the right decision.
Our control of the ball is already too long. It feels like no one takes responsibility to beat, to create a numerical advantage. Tsygankov and Buyalsky are capable of this, but this is not enough when the entire opposing team goes on the defensive. We need all the players to participate in the attack, everyone to come to the penalty area.
We need more than just ball control. He is already such that it is as if the guys are shifting responsibility onto each other. Nobody wants to take risks, beat, go dribbling. Each of our rivals in the Ukrainian championship plays against us with redoubled energy, with double motivation, and this is understandable, because they are playing against Dynamo. And defended by the whole team. In order to overcome this, one must take risks. We bring the ball to the penalty area, enter the penalty area, earn corners. Today we had 13 corners, the opponent had 1, and the opponent had chances to score after this set-piece. We need individuals on the field who decide. We need killers who finish off!
I understand the guys, some of them play under pressure, and this pressure constrains their actions. They feel responsible because they play in a team that always aims exclusively for the first place. In each match, only one result is acceptable for this team - victory.
- How to lead the players to do what you just said?
- A lot depends on the central striker in terms of completing attacks, playing the game in attack. But it is difficult for both Vanat and Besedin to enter into combinations, they have stronger sides - this is speed and the use of free zones. And with a game like today, it is difficult for them to come out in combinations, and they constantly lost the ball.
Another weapon that should have been used today was long-range strikes. But we punched too far. It was necessary to enter the "shock zones" and punch through from there. At the same time, there was a rush to deliver such blows.
Today we controlled the course of the game, controlled the ball, attacked, created chances, pressed well when the ball was lost in the opponent's half of the field. We did everything today, except for what I said: there was not enough finishing pass, finishing blow.
One more moment. You see how much time is added to both halves at the World Cup. Often, as today, one of the teams plays for time, gives the ball a slow move, slowly makes substitutions. Today it was profitable for the opponent. I think we should try to adopt the practice that is currently being used at the 2022 World Cup. If no team cannot and does not want to speed up the game, then at least compensation for the time wasted by the opponent is needed. Maybe this will change something.
Oleg Golodyuk. Photo — Y. YuryevOleg GOLODIUK, Metalist 1925 coach:
— A very difficult game against a good opponent. Dynamo is Dynamo, it is one of the leaders in our championship. But the guys endured, fought one for one, and as a result, they received one credit point as a reward.
The opponent, of course, had an advantage, but we were pleased with the attitude of the players of our team to the game. They deserved a draw with this attitude. We could have won, but we will not anger God: Dynamo also had moments. Therefore, a draw is a positive result for us.
“It’s clear that your team’s plan A was to fight back. Was there a plan "B"? Just in case you missed it.
- If you had missed it, then you would have seen everything. We didn't have a plan "A" to fight back. Where did you get this information from? If I were you, I would not use such a word at all. In any case, we do not use the word "fight back" in our team.
We were waiting for our chances. We knew that Dynamo was playing very high, we wanted to take advantage of this situation. But the game itself pushed the guys to the penalty area. And in the course of the match it is already difficult to rebuild. But the guys endured and endured. I repeat, I liked their attitude, I liked the way they fought for each other, the way they talked to each other. We lacked this in previous matches.
In such games, a team is built. In the locker room, we, the coaching staff, thanked the guys for a month and a half of working together. It is a dream for any coach to work with such a team. Real fellows!
Alexander POPOV from the Dynamo Stadium named after Valery Lobanovsky
