Ukraine's youth team reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth Euro and won a ticket to the Olympics. I am very calm about the results in youth and junior football. We have already had examples of victories at the World Youth Championship and the Youth Euro. This did not become an impetus for the development of football in the country or for the national team to reach a new level.
Ruslan RotanAll youth football exists to prepare players for adult football. We have 7 players who already have experience of being called up to the national team. Mudryk, Trubin and Sudakov have already become the main players in the Ukrainian senior national team. Vanat and Sikan played for the national team, and Bondarenko and Sirota received calls up. Here we are in first place among all the participants by a huge margin. For example, Croatia could have fielded three defenders: Guardiola (RB Leipzig, estimated at €75 million), Šutalo (Dinamo Zagreb, €18 million), Stanisic (Bayern Munich, €12 million), but none of them played in the Euros because they are already players in the first national team. From Barcelona, Balde, Eric Garcia, Gavi, Pedri, Nicol Gonzalez (spent last season at Valencia), Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati could have played for the Spanish youth team, but none of them were on the application. They don't need it anymore.
I will evaluate the performance of Rotan's team at the Euros by only one criterion - the number of players from this team in the national team of Ukraine. 7 players are already somehow relevant. I hope that the Euro will help Bondarenko and Sikan improve their positions. I hope that Taloverov, Sych, Vivcharenko, Kryskiv, Saluk, Kashchuk, Nazarenko, Neshcheret will be able to break into the first team. The more such players there are, the more successful Rotan's work will be. This is the main thing.
The second aspect. This is the evolution of our coach Rotan. When Ruslan Petrovych took over the youth national team, he was a complete novice in coaching. He had two months of assistant experience at Olimpik. The first selection was a failure. Or rather, its first part. And then things went uphill for the coach and the team. Ukrainian football got a good specialist by its standards, who will now concentrate on the affairs of Oleksandriya. The youth national team has become a factor that helped Rotan assert himself as a coach and open up new prospects for him.
I really hope that after Rotan, one of the young Ukrainian coaches will join the youth team, who will thus have the opportunity to grow and eventually move to a higher level. The Spaniard will go home from here as soon as he finishes his job. Youth and junior football is not only about developing young players, but also coaches.
Getting back to Rotan. He took off his rose-coloured glasses. We achieved the result thanks to the postulates that worked for the great Lobanovsky - team play, quick transition from defence to attack, pressure. Rotan proved to be a very rational coach. We played team football and were one step away from the final. Sometimes we played with three centre-backs, we set up a bus to win. We can't be like the Spaniards, Italians, or French. Mentally, we have our own strengths.
Ruslan Petrovych at the club level with Oleksandriya started playing with a high defensive line, he wanted to control the ball, play from a position of strength. In terms of results, the team did not look convincing. We took points away from Shakhtar and Dnipro-1 due to the opposite principles - defensive reliability and contracts. I expect Ruslan Petrovych to become more rational at the club level in the new season.
The coach is developing. He came to work with one idea. He realised that they could not be materialised or needed to be improved. He got burned on something, something worked. Based on his experience, he understands what principles bring results. I really hope that the Euros will also be an impetus for him to work successfully at the club level.
Serhii Tyshchenko
