Will Rebrov play three defenders?

The Ukrainian national team has serous problems with its wingers ahead of the European Championship qualifiers against Northern Macedonia and Malta. One of the team's leaders Viktor Tsygankov and Andriy Yarmolenko will miss the games due to injuries.

Sergey Rebrov

In fact, Serhii Rebrov has a very limited choice of wing midfielders - Mykhailo Mudryk and Oleksandr Zubkov. Mudryk was injured not long ago. Both players are physically unable to play the whole match. We can hardly hope that they will play 90 minutes in an interval of three days. There are options with Rusyn, Sudakov, Buyalsky playing on the flank, but these are hardly equivalent changes. Rusyn plays very little for Sunderland. The ex-Dynamo player's game and physical form are unlikely to suit Rebrov. Sudakov played on the wing in Rotan's youth team under a certain scheme of play. Buyalsky had such experience a long time ago.

When Rebrov was working with Dynamo, he also had problems with wingers. Then he switched to a three-back formation. I think this option is also possible now. Serhiy Stanislavovych has called up another central midfielder. Although there were no personnel problems in these positions. Such decisions hint at a possible change of tactics.

There are all the prerequisites to believe that the coaching staff may try a new scheme of play. The national team has players who can cover the entire flank. On the right are Karavaev and Konoplya, on the left are Mykolenko, Mykhailichenko and Zinchenko. In the centre of defence, Zabarnyi and Matvienko will be joined by Kryvtsov/Svatok/Popov/Mykolenko. In the middle of the pitch, the choice is also great - the support of Stepanenko, with whom Sudakov, Malinowski, Buyalsky, Zinchenko can play together.

The main thing about this idea is that the national team will switch to a two-forward formation. This is very important against teams that will play from the defence and we will need to attack a lot positively. I think Dovbyk, who plays consistently for Girona, will be the main striker. He can be paired with Yaremchuk or Vanat. There is also the possibility of a "false nine" in the person of Mudryk. There is depth in each position. You can strengthen the game and rotate. It is much more interesting than being dependent on the two available wingers.

Serhii Tyshchenko