The outgoing transfers of Serhii Buletsa and Bohdan Lednev confirmed Mircea Lucescu's desire to have two players for one position at Dynamo. Vitalii Buyalskyi is available for this position. Anton Tsarenko will play the role of his understudy. Anyone who is not needed is out.
Photo by Yuriy YurievBushchan/Neshcheret - Tymchyk/Karavaev, Popov/Dyachuk, Bilovar/Sirota, Dubinchak/Vivcharenko - Sydorchuk/Brazhko, Shaparenko/Shepelev/Andrievsky - Yarmolenko/Perrys, Buyalsky/Carenko, Kabaev/Voloshyn/Diallo - Vanat/Benito. This is the line-up for the start of the new season.
Only in the defensive line will there be competition, and in the middle of the field and attack there is a clear division into the main players and their understudies. There is an overabundance only in the middle of the field and at the left midfield position. I understand that the season is long, the team plays on two fronts, fatigue, injuries, rotation, cards have not been cancelled. On the other hand, the economic situation is such that we need to save money and clean up the payroll.
Two players are enough to replace Mykola Shaparenko and Serhiy Sydorchuk. Volodymyr Brazhko, who is given large advances, plays the role of a competitor to the captain. Under Shaparenko are Shepelev and Andrievsky. Some of them may turn out to be superfluous.
I think Vladimir Shepelev has a great chance of following the example of Buletsa and Lednev. He is already 26 years old. He hasn't made any progress. There may be some good matches, but that's it. He does not justify the advances made during his time with Sergei Rebrov's team. He has not become a "new Rybalka". There are obvious problems with speed, stability, and, I suppose, ambition. When Shaparenko was seriously injured last season, Volodymyr couldn't even become a main player.
Let's not forget that Shepelev's contract is valid for another season. There are not many reasons to extend it. He is a rotation player who has already been in the first team for 6 years. It is unlikely that anything will change. His competitor Oleksandr Andrievskyi is older, has a longer contract, and had some glimpses of the game in the spring. In the opening two UPL matches, Shepelev came on as a substitute twice, while Andrievsky did not play.
Shaparenko's possible transfer to another club (now or in the winter) will not affect this situation. When Mykola was out for most of last season, neither Shepelev nor Andrievsky could fully replace him. If Shapa leaves, we will need a new player.
You can be a hundred times unhappy with Vladislav Kabaev's performance, but Mircea Lucescu sees him as the main player on the left flank of the midfield. He is likely to play this role for at least the first part of the season. Below him are two young players - Ukrainian Nazar Voloshyn and Senegalese Samba Diallo. Voloshyn has much more experience in senior football. During the first part of last season, he played for Kryvbas (where he became one of the leaders) and then in the spring he played for Dynamo's first team (he strengthened his performance in the second half).
For young players, the main opportunity for progress is a stable game practice. Neither Nazar nor Samba can play for the youth team anymore. Just competing for a place in the rotation under Kabayev is not very good for two 20-year-old players. Someone needs to go away to gain experience through steady game practice to come back stronger. Given Voloshin's greater experience in adult football (Samba only shone at the youth level), the Ukrainian has a better chance of staying.
The arrival of the much-coveted central defender opens the way for the transfer of one of the four existing defenders. The favourites are likely to be younger and less experienced players, such as Maksym Dyachuk or Christian Bilovar.
Serhiy Tyshchenko
