Renowned journalist and editor-in-chief of Football magazine Artem Frankov shared his thoughts on today's friendly match between the Ukrainian national team and Brentford.
Artem Frankov- What do you expect from the Ukrainian national team in this friendly? What surprises is Rotan preparing and what unexpected things can we expect from his team?
- It will all depend on the lineup Brentford play with. I doubt that he will play as the basis and set any tasks. This match is unofficial and cannot be counted in any standings, because the match between the national team and the club is not counted in any way in the ratings or statistics.
I'm interested to see how Ruslan Rotan will try to utilize our full potential on the left flank, where we have three players: Zinchenko, Mykolenko and Mudryk. Will Rotan go the way of Graham Potter and move Mudryk to the center, or will Zinchenko play in the center? This is most interesting to me in tactical terms.
- Is the idea of mixed friendly matches between clubs and national teams normal in our time? Can this sparring be useful?
- It's at the level of sparring, two-sided. An unofficial game is an unofficial game. It used to be a common thing. At one time, the Brazilian national team had a lot of unofficial matches that did not count. That's why many of their players had twice as many unofficial matches for the national team as official ones.
- What will Rotan manage to do during this time? Can a coach change anything in the national team during such a period?
- As an acting coach, he does not plan to take any action. The conspiracy theory says that he is only filling the pause until the arrival of the real coach, who is in touch and voices his wishes.
Everything that is happening is the result of the wild incapacity, passivity, and even malice of the Football Federation of Ukraine. The UAF demonstrates indifference to the problems of the national team and even gives the impression that the national team has been simply bolted.
After the draw, when we realized that we were in the same group as England and Italy, we thought: "What does it matter how we play? We're not going to make it anyway."
- Name one player who is superfluous in this team and who was not called up for nothing?
- No one understands on what basis Konoplyanka was called up. It is this player that everyone is talking about and does not understand what is happening. It's good that Konoplyanka has such a character that he doesn't bother with these problems.
It's hard to say who is missing. The lineup is normal. Konoplyanka is out due to injury. The main thing is to be healthy.
- What do you see as the biggest problems of the Ukrainian national team under Rotan?
- A coach who has come for an unclear period of time and for what purpose will always have problems managing the team, because the team itself looks at him and thinks how much they obey you and whether your instructions are authoritative. This is just an assumption. I don't know how things really are within the team.
The situation itself, when you have to play with Brentford, and not play a control match with some serious team... Again, a question to the UAF leadership: "Wouldn't you like to provide a sparring partner, a match with which will be included in the standings?" I understand that they are just tied to the London training camp and practical convenience, so as not to go anywhere and play with the London team. Thank you for not being from the lower divisions, but still an EPL team.
- Is there an option for Rotan to become a permanent coach for the national team now?
- Of course, there is. Petrakov also came in as an acting coach, and then it turned out that they couldn't find anyone for this position. So Petrakov became a full-time coach.
Now people are talking about Rebrov, but they were talking about him even then. In our country, he turns into a "backstage Godot". There's a play by Beckett called Waiting for Godot. So, in it, Godot never appears. They are waiting for him, but he doesn't show up. So we have a waiting for Godot.
Yevhen Chepur
