Oleg Fedorchuk: "Blaming Lucescu is the easiest thing to do"

Renowned coach and expert Oleg Fedorchuk shared his opinion on the problems of Dynamo Kyiv this season.

- This season, our entire championship has been, let's say, paradoxical. In general, before the start of the championship, I predicted that Dynamo Kyiv would lose the least points. I was not alone, many experts considered Dynamo to be the main contender for the championship, but...

Now Shakhtar and Dnipro-1 are at the top. Zorya could have been higher, but the Luhansk club lost a lot of points in the first half of the championship.

Someone might say that Dnipro-1's second place and a chance for the championship is a surprise or a miracle. No, I don't think so.

The main surprise of the championship was Dynamo's place and results! It was a failure.

I am also surprised by Chornomorets' not very high place. Despite the fact that they have a very good coach, Roman Hryhorchuk, and the team's potential is generally decent.

As for the chances of winning the championship, I'll answer as follows: 55 to 45 in favour of Shakhtar. The Miners have a deeper squad. Igor Jovicevic can vary his line-up. This is their advantage over Oleksandr Kucher's team.

The fate of the gold medals will be decided by 99.0 per cent in the head-to-head game between Shakhtar and Dnipro-1. If Shakhtar wins, they will be congratulated on the championship.

But if Dnipro-1 wins, I would not congratulate them prematurely. They still have a game against Kryvbas. These are teams from the same region. The success of a neighbour is the most painful thing that can happen (laughs). My point is that Yuriy Vernydub's team will definitely put up a fight.

-Who is to blame for Dynamo's terrible results? Jozsef Szabo, for example, is sure that it is Mircea Lucescu.

- Blaming Lucescu is the easiest thing to do. Yes, there is Lucescu's fault, but the main problem is much deeper. The fact is that Lucescu has always worked with mature players, or talented Brazilians, who were given plenty of time to adapt. He simply set them up with a game, smoothly introduced them to the team.

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I mostly worked with young people myself.

Dynamo's global problem is the wrong vector of development for the entire club, which was chosen 10 years ago. Let's recall the so-called Spanish model of play that Dynamo tried to instil in the club at one time. And what happened? Who did Dynamo bring up?

"Dynamo needs to rebuild. Now there is a tendency to bring up power players. Just look at Erling Holland. He is an athlete.

At Dynamo, however, there is a real shortage of strong, powerful players. There is also a lack of speedy players. Now Dynamo is going through a generational change, the team needs a coach who knows how to work with young people. Many people fantasise about giving Oleksandr Shovkovskyi a chance. We can give him a chance, but he has never coached an adult team. You have to start with the youth. The same Pep Guardiola started with young people and dozens of great world coaches too.

As for Lucescu... you know, with all my respect for him, Dynamo needs to look for a new coach.

- Do you see any promising players among Dynamo's youngsters?

- I will answer yes. Let's take a look at Zorya, where the coach gathered players that Dynamo and Shakhtar didn't need and made a solid team, a team that produces results. The quality of Zorya's play is now as good as that of Shakhtar, Dnipro-1 or Dynamo. I just admire the work of Patrick van Leeuwen at Zorya.

So the answer is obvious: Dynamo's young players can produce results.

- Nowadays, it is very difficult to invite a coach from abroad to Ukraine. Are there any worthy specialists in Ukraine who could lead and produce results with Dynamo?

- Yes, there are three or four good specialists. But I will not name them. I will say this - they are all at work now. And they have already shown their level in this championship. So, it's not hard to guess who I'm talking about.

And to give or not to give a chance to a coach without experience to manage Dynamo is not worth it. We need a specialist to step smoothly on the coaching path.

Just like young players smoothly move from youth to adult football. Then there will be a result. And not like with Mudryk: he was promoted to Chelsea, moved to a famous European club, and this is not his level. And that's it. Now he has a serious risk of losing his career altogether.

And Mykhailo would have played gradually, like Mohamed Salah, for example, who went on loan and then moved to Liverpool and played (returned to the Premier League - ed.).

Viktor Hlukhienkyi