Former member of the coaching staff of the Belgian Brugge Paul Okon told why the Ukrainian striker of the team Roman Yaremchuk failed to play in its first team after moving from the Portuguese Benfica last summer.
“Everything was simple with Yaremchuk. He was not ready at the proper level when he came to us from Benfica. Roman was not able to play even 20 minutes at a high pace, if we talk about top-level football. This was confirmed by all the data, all the tests, all the results.
And Yaremchuk’s competitor in attack, Ferran Yutgla, on the contrary, was in excellent shape and performed the functions and tasks of the attacker well. And what was the head coach to do (Karl Hufkens, - ed.)? To remove a more ready striker from the squad just because there is a player whose transfer cost the club 16 million euros?
Yes, if Yaremchuk now successfully played in Brugge under the new head coach, then Karl Hoefkens would look like an idiot. But this is absolutely not the case, ”Voetbal Nieuws quotes Okon.
Recall that Yaremchuk played the last match of Brugge on the bench. In eight matches of the team this year, the Ukrainian got into the starting lineup only four times, and in all these cases he was replaced. In the current season, the striker took part in Brugge's 19 matches, and he scored two goals and two assists.