Championship "by loss". What prevents Dynamo from winning

Yesterday's defeat of Dynamo from Dnipro-1 (0:1) was significant with regard to one factor, which, in my firm belief, was definitely among those that prevented Mircea Lucescu's team from achieving better results and playing more stable and confidently in the starting segment of the current Ukrainian championship. But before we talk about what changed yesterday's result, first - a few lines about the very background of this text.

Those, who follow Dynamo, know very well that three calendar matches of the team in the current UPL season have been postponed. And those who don't follow, I'm sure, know about it anyway, because the head coach of Kyivians Mircea Lucescu almost in every public comment or interview said that three victories in three postponed matches will allow his team to take the first place in the standings.

For example: "Although we are now eight points behind Shakhtar, but with three games in hand we can move into the lead." Or another, and just before the match with Dnipro-1:"Our advantage is that we have three games to spare".

In a word, we are talking about the fact that Dynamo coach actively used the thesis about the conditional leadership in terms of lost points. Personally, I have never seen any common sense in making calculations "by lost points" - from my point of view, it is absolutely the same as dividing the skin of an unkilled bear. Moreover, this approach has a serious conflict with logic. After all, if we assume that a team will take maximum points in the postponed matches, then we can just as easily assume that a team will take maximum points in ALL remaining matches of the tournament.

That is, if we say that Dynamo is the leader in terms of lost points, it looks like some half-measure, some understatement. It is necessary to say directly: Dynamo is the champion of Ukraine in terms of lost points. After all, if maximum points in the postponed matches will bring Dynamo to the first place, then maximum points in the remaining matches will leave the team in the leading position. Championship by lost points - that's how it should be called, I guess.

But to hell with me. Some people like to count the points they haven't scored yet - as they say, you're welcome to, if it creates a mood or brings peace. The problem in this case is quite different. When a coach time and time again says out loud that his team is leading in terms of points lost (and in reality it is in sixth or seventh place), it is guaranteed, I emphasise, guaranteed, to have detrimental consequences for that very team. And I will argue why this is the case.

The fact is that the players of the team are not in a vacuum, they also read the statements of their coach. Including about leadership, which does not exist, but which, it turns out, does. And they absorb this thesis like a sponge, without even paying attention to it. They absorb it because it is the statement of the head coach of their team, whom they trust, whom they listen to, who is the captain of their ship. And this coach, instead of the expected (from my point of view) "you take that maximum points in the postponed games first!" talks about leading "by a loss".

One could somehow understand this thesis in a situation when it would be applicable to a team that is confidently conducting the championship, going without losses (or at least almost without losses!). But when the team is clearly stalling, when the team concedes in almost every match (and often more than one goal!), when before the game with Dnipro-1 the team won only five out of eight matches in the domestic arena (including the Ukrainian Cup) (i.e. lost 38% of matches; and now after the defeat to Dnipro-1 this value is already 44%), then I simply cannot understand how the head coach of such a team can even mention the leadership in terms of lost points. It's not even nonsense. It looks like a complete loss of orientation in reality.

And the players, I repeat, hear it all, read it all. And inevitably also acquire the same loss of orientation in reality. And what? That's right - they take the field as leaders in terms of lost points. They come on the pitch as a team that is doing well, that is confidently conducting the tournament and leading in it. But in fact they are not doing very well! And so when the team again faces the situation that the opponent, it turns out, can also play football at the same level, when he plays even better in some parts of the match, the team is lost - the players do not understand what is happening ("How is it? We are the leaders and we are doing well, we are scratching forward without any failures"). All this inevitably leads to instant nervousness, confusion and things only get worse.

And what does the coach do afterwards? And the coach at the post-match press conference says that we dominated and created a lot of chances! It's just that the players lacked concentration. And the fact that we conceded is not a problem at all, the only problem is that we didn`t score. That is, again, everything is good in general. And the team absorbs this "all is well" again like a sponge. And it goes to the next round of losing its orientation in reality - everything is fine again, it's on a roll, it's still the leader in this tournament in terms of points lost. And then she goes out on the course again with that in her head. And again gets a free ticket to reality. From "Polesya", from "Obolon", from "Dnipro-1"..... A cyclical situation.

But the defeat from Dnipro-1 will hopefully interrupt this cyclical situation. The thing is that now Dynamo is no longer the sole leader in terms of lost points. Yes, if we add 9 "ephemeral" points in three postponed matches to the current 15 points, which are in the Kyiv team's asset, we will get 24 - it is more than the leading Kryvbas (23). But, as in that anecdote, "there is a nuance". Not only Dynamo has postponed matches. For example, Dnipro-1 has two matches not played. Shakhtar and Ruh each have one postponed match. And if we assume that Dynamo takes maximum points in postponed matches, then the same assumption should be made in relation to Dnipro-1, Shakhtar and Ruh, right? Not only Dynamo should have the right to determine their potential tournament position by the lost points.

So here it is. For those who like to count the points not gained, there is a great leisure option: sit down and calculate all the variants of layouts for the postponed matches of all UPL teams. And for everyone else I will tell you at once: Dynamo will not become the sole (exactly the sole) leader in any of these layouts. Even if it takes nine out of nine points in three postponed matches.

That's why there is hope that, maybe, at least now the phrases about Dynamo's leadership in terms of lost points will finally cease to be heard.

In conclusion, I want to say the main thing. The situation with the coach's constant voicing of the thesis about the leadership by lost points is just one of the examples of how easy it is to detach the team from reality and thus instil in it a detrimental psychological attitude, background - whatever you want to call it. Maybe I could write some lines about other examples, but I won't do it on principle. Because my goal is not to write a canvas "about how bad everything is", but to make an attempt to demonstrate on one exemplary example what can be changed to give Dynamo more chances to show its game potential. And take more points. Real ones! Already scored! Not from a parallel universe.

As long as the team will go on the pitch in a detached from reality, as long as the team will start the match keeping in the subconscious thoughts about its peculiarity and exclusivity in this championship, we can hardly expect any global improvements. It was in the season-1998/99 (for example) when Dynamo was special and exceptional (even by the standards of Europe), but even for that team its coach did not allow the team to think about itself in such a way. And now the realities of our football are such that Dynamo is not special and exceptional, and, I am sure, only with such understanding it is possible to go to the match with the attitude that will allow to show the game potential.

Alexander POPOV

P.S. On the topic of scoring, a particular contrast with the current situation arose recently when Serhiy Rebrov, the head coach of the Ukraine national team, said in response to a question about the standings: "I didn't look at the standings at all. What is there to look at? There is the nearest match, which we need to win". I suggest to think about what will be in the heads of the team players in this case. And with what mood they will go into the game.