I believe that in the new season, Dynamo will be able to challenge for the league title. At least, I can name three components of the Kyiv team's possible success.
Photo by Alexander PopovExperience. There is a lot of talk about Dynamo wanting to develop young players and relying on the pupils of their own Academy. But the reality is a little different. Not a single player from 2006 (Ponomarenko, Pashko, Kalyn) or 2005 (Gusev, Balaba) went to the training camp. Since 2004, only one Tsarenko. If you look at the main squad that plays at the training camp in Austria, there is no one under the age of 20. Actually, there are not so many young players - Vivcharenko, Dyachuk, Tsarenko, Voloshin and Vanat. Only the latter can be a stable player in the base.
The rest of the team is very experienced. Leaders Sydorchuk and Yarmolenko are 32 and 33 years old respectively. Another leading player, Buyalsky, is 30. The main goalkeeper Bushchan is 29. The rotation players Karavaev is 30, Andrievsky is 29, Kabaev is almost 28. Tymchyk, Shaparenko, Dubinchak, Shepelev, Lednev, Buletsa, Popov, Syrota are already experienced people who have played more than one season in the UPL and international matches.
If we take the basis of Bushchan - Tymchyk, Popov, Dyachuk (Bilovar, Syrota), Vivcharenko - Sydorchuk, Shaparenko - Yarmolenko, Buyalsky, Kabaev - Vanat. Without Karavayev and Dubinchak (who will have enough game practice), the average age of the team is around 28 years old. Accordingly, experience is stability. There are very few young players who are just starting out now.
Yarmolenko's return. I am very pleased with Andriy's return so far. He is behaving well. No fuss with the number, the captain's armband. On the contrary, the players are united around him. Yarmolenko's return has become a good emotional factor for Sydorchuk, who is experiencing his second youth at the training camp. I think it was also an important factor in the fact that Karavayev and Buyalsky remained in the team. It's been a long time since the team has had such a leader. First of all, a mental one.
Yarmolenko's goal is the championship. He returned to Ukraine for this purpose. I hope that this will unite young and experienced players. The team is now on an emotional high. Not only did a player with individual class come in, but he also makes others play better.
Despite the fact that Andriy is already in his thirties. But he helps the team in terms of construction. In matches (and there will definitely be some during the championship) where everything can be decided by one goal, Andriy can tilt the balance in Dynamo's favour thanks to his skills.
Shakhtar may have problems. The Donetsk team changed their coach in the summer. Patrick van Leeuwen is still moulding a new team. No one can guarantee that he will be able to do it.
The Dynamo/Shakhtar championship is not only about the strength of the team during the season, but also about the problems of the opponent. Remember that in the 2020/21 season, when Mircea came in, Shakhtar frankly crumbled in the spring. This season, the Miners largely became champions because of Dynamo's problems.
The Palkin-Srna rivalry is obvious at Shakhtar. In 2020, the Croatian returned to the Donetsk club as director of football, but he was also on the staff of the then team coach Castro. I think Srna was one of the factors that broke the team from the inside. "Shakhtar moved away from the vector of young Brazilians, started buying established players for big money, and invited non-Portuguese-speaking coaches.
Now, Srna's protégé Jovićević has been dismissed. "Shakhtar were led by a coach from Palkin's orbit. They worked together during the formation of the Academy. Young Brazilians have started again. Patrick has his own Trojan horse at his headquarters - Nicolini. In 2020, the Italian specialist did not want to work for Dynamo, but was appointed Srna's deputy. Now Nicolini will be responsible for the team's physical training. Italian and Dutch schools are very different. Shakhtar currently have a number of injured players and we have received information that not everyone is happy with the workload. If in 2020/21 there was a confrontation between Castro and Srna in the coaching staff, now there may well be a van Leeuwen-Nicolini confrontation. They are very different and focus on different people at the club.
The depth of the squad. Last season, Dynamo had big personnel problems. Shaparenko and Bushchan were injured at the beginning of the season. In the winter, Tsygankov and Zabarnyi left. No one was able to replace them. In addition, there was a clear lack of depth in the squad and competition. Now there are actually two players for each place. Of course, Lucescu is a conservative coach. The word "competition" is not appropriate for him. But there is now an opportunity to strengthen the game, to eliminate injuries, to rotate.
Serhii Tyshchenko
