Renowned coach and expert Oleh Fedorchuk analysed the start of the Ukrainian youth national team at Euro 2023 (U-21). It will be recalled that Ruslan Rotan's team beat Croatia 2-0 in the opening match of the tournament.
Oleg Fedorchuk- Let's start with the staff. We had an APL representative for the defence centre, but he is out of the application. Is Zabarnyi right not to go to Euro 2023?
- Zabarnyi could have helped the Youth team, but his decision must be respected. The most important thing for me is that he publicly said that he was tired and wanted to get a good rest in order to go through the full pre-season with Bournemouth and win the competition for the new coach.
- Why were the notable players of the spring part of the UPL season - Alefirenko (Chornomorets), Saputin (Zorya), Sapuga (Rukh), Tverdokhlib (Minaj), Rubchynskyi (Dnipro-1) - ignored?
- Rotan had a lot to choose from, because during his six months at Oleksandriya he could personally see each of the potential candidates in action. Therefore, none of these players can have any questions for Rotan. In the national team, players must be resilient, versatile and communicate well.
- Was it worth taking national team players if they were injured or tired? Are there any chances that Mudryk, Vanat and Sudakov will recover by the end of the group stage?
- The U-21 coaching staff had time to analyse the opponents and come to the conclusion that they could play Croatia and Romania with little strength. Sudakov is tired after playing for the national team. For the match against Romania, we can expect him and Mudryk to rotate in the game against Spain and recover for the playoffs.
- Who did you like the most from the opening match against Croatia?
- I looked at Kashchuk's statistics in Azerbaijan - the numbers are quite impressive. He is a very inventive guy. If he continues like this, it's only a matter of time before he gets called up to the national team. Bondarenko made some great passes. He reminded me of De Bruyne in some ways.
From the youth team's game with the Croats, we saw that there are problems in defence. We lost so many episodes, one-on-one - it's a nightmare. Everyone notes how Taloverov gnawed the balls, but he just corrected his mistakes and partners. When a coach makes a substitution prematurely, he is correcting his mistake. If Taloverov had been quicker, he wouldn't have rushed the ball, but it's good that we didn't concede against Croatia.
- Do you like rotanball, when everyone, including the goalkeeper, doesn't shoot the ball but tries to work with the passing game?
- When commentators start talking about rotanball during broadcasts, it brings a smile to my face. As soon as they start praising it, our players make a mistake in their own penalty area that should have led to a goal:) If you take players who know how to play combination football in their clubs, they will play in the national team in this way. It is impossible to re-teach a 20-year-old player when he has never done it.
At Oleksandriya, we saw that this experiment cost the team a place in the European competitions. The more you pass, the better it is for the opponent. Every young coach should remember: the faster the attacking action, the more useful it will be. If you keep the ball, the opponent has more leverage. We see that all the leading coaches say that you need to control the initiative, not the ball, and change the rhythm of the game. So that the opponent cannot get used to you. You have to attack faster when the opponent cannot keep up with you and vice versa.
I hear rumours that Oleksandriya are in big trouble. The perception of Rotan's ideas is not supported by either the players or the management.
- Did Kashchuk deserve a chance at Shakhtar, or is he going to be left behind Zubkov and Petriak?
- He deserved it for two reasons - the result and the additional motivation for the competition. For Shakhtar, who will play on two fronts, Oleksiy will be a great option.
Oleksandr Karpenko
