I believe that one of the main problems of Dynamo Kyiv this season is the defensive line. When Mircea Lucescu joined the team, the principle of defensive reliability became a priority. If everything is secure at the back, the attack will look for its chances. One goal can decide the fate of the match and bring three points. And then somehow it all fell apart. Three goals from Dnipro-1 in the opening round, then how many from Zorya. We also got three in the classic against Shakhtar.
Photo by Yuriy YurievI'm far from saying that the loss of Ilya Zabarnyi was the key here. In the autumn, with Ilya in the squad, the defence did not look convincing. The apogee was his sending off in a crucial match against Shakhtar out of the blue. After that, it became clear that Kyiv would not win back.
There are no problems with the number and, accordingly, competition. The coach has four centre-backs at his disposal - Denys Popov, Oleksandr Syrota, Maksym Dyachuk and Anton Bol. The latter, however, has not yet played for the first team.
In the match against Chornomorets, it was individual mistakes in defence that led to the defeat. If we put aside the defensive performance, we created enough in attack to win confidently. We scored two goals and had good chances for 2-3 more. I don't see any point in being specific. Everyone watched the match and saw who made mistakes. Everything that didn't fly in Poltava and Kryvyi Rih flew in the match against Chornomorets. Remember how we conceded against Metalist. This is not a problem of yesterday's game, but deeper. Something needs to be done about it. If the team wants to win and regain the lead, it must start with the defence.
Signing an experienced defender. Dynamo's oldest central defender is Popov, who turned 24 at the beginning of the year. Syrota is 22, Bol is 20, and Dyachuk is 19. At Shakhtar and Dnipro-1, the youngest first-team centre-backs are 24 years old (Bondar and Sarapiy, respectively), with more experienced partners (Rakytskyi/Matvienko and Svatok/Adamyuk, Fedoriv). At Zorya, Batagov is 21, but he is played by Maksym Imerekov, who is more than 10 years older. Experience is very, very important for the centre of defence. Perhaps Dynamo should look for an experienced defender in the summer. On the other hand, the Zabarnyi-Popov/Sirota pairing used to play together.
Lack of a defence chief. You don't appoint a leader, you become one. It is very important to have a defender who will guide his teammates in defence, tell them what to do. Now there are no spectators at the stadium. In Dynamo, everyone is silent in defence. Tomasz Kędziora had these qualities. Lucescu sometimes put him in the centre of defence. There is also the problem of the goalkeeper, because Ruslan Neshcheret also does not have such qualities. This is very important for a goalkeeper. Andriy Lunin is also silent. All this ended with 4 goals in the match against Girona. The goalkeeper faces the opponent. He sees more. The goalkeeper must have authority and leadership qualities.
The absence of Shaparenko. "Dynamo plays with a high line of defenders. Defenders have to work a lot with the ball, act under pressure, and launch attacks. Earlier, Mykola Shaparenko was a key player in building the game of Kyiv. In fact, he organised the transition from defence to attack, the launch of attacks, and broke the opponent's pressure. After Mykola's injury, the team does not have a player of this style. All the pressure was on the defence. And then the defenders' shortcomings in handling the ball and launching attacks began to emerge. I really hope that Shaparenko's return will strengthen the defensive order in the first place. At least the defenders will have less work to do in the press.
Lack of chemistry. The strength of the defensive centre is in the teamwork and understanding of each other. Dynamo does not have a main pair of central defenders. Lucescu started with the Kendziora-Orphan pair. Mykolenko played in the centre of defence. Then the Zabarnyi-Popov pairing began to form. Due to Denys's recurring health problems, this pair did not take shape. The search in the centre of defence continues. In the winter, we played Popov and Dyachuk. But the search is still ongoing. There is no smell of stability and reliability yet.
There is no progress. Popov and Syrota have been with the team for three seasons. They seem to have international experience. I don't see any progress. The same instability. In the 2020/21 season, Denys looked more reliable. Dyachuk's game is not much different from the first game against Ingulets. There can be good matches, and there can be outright failures. The overall level is very unstable and unreliable.
Serhii Tyshchenko
