Kryvyi Rih Kryvbas head coach Yuriy Vernidub commented on the news that his son Vitaliy Vernidub will now be one of his assistants.
- It's all right, it's natural, every footballer finishes playing sooner or later. The time has come for Vitaliy to make his choice too. We talked, I told him: "You've come a good way as a player, you've worked with very good coaches. And if you want to devote your life to coaching, you need to go and study". He made his choice and went to school. Now the training process is under way, and then life will show whether he can be a coach or not. Only he will be able to prove, to show his coaching work.
- The message on the official Kryvbas website about Vitaliy's joining your coaching staff says that he will be "a kind of buffer zone between the team and the coaches". What does that phrase mean?
- He has been in the last championship with all the lads, he knows them well, he has certain authority among the players, he was one of three captains. On the contrary, it should help. He will support us where necessary. This is a normal phenomenon, I also transferred to the team in my time.
- Valeriy Lobanovskiy once said: "If you want to be a good coach, forget what kind of football player you were. Has Vitaliy already managed to "kill" the footballer in him, or the process is just beginning?
- These are very good words, and Vitaliy understands it best. I told him myself: "Once you decided to coach, forget what you were a football player and, most importantly, what kind of football player you were. You should not tell anyone about that. You should tell the players how to improve their game, not how you played and what you achieved.
- Has he already shown you his work plan or at this stage, everything will be done according to Vernidub Senior's notes?
- Well, that will definitely not be the case (Laughs). During this time he has already accumulated a number of ideas. He is still young, somewhere, of course, something will need to be said. But the most important thing for him is to develop properly now. He has the opportunity and the task to work with our defence, and it will largely depend on him how our defenders will play.
And we hope very much that he will help our coaching staff. We look at his thoughts and opinions together and he will say everything to the players. As it should be, any team has a head coach, and assistants in one direction or another. But the final decision is made by the head coach, it is not negotiated. Otherwise it would be a swan, a crab and a pike.
Anyway, Vitaliy is already working, the only thing he is worried about is all these changes. But it's all temporary, I think he will quickly adjust and realize he is already a coach.
Yevgeniy Savchuk