Oleg Fedorchuk: "Ukrainian football has not suffered from the departure of Jovetic and van Leeuwen"

Famous Ukrainian coach Oleh Fedorchuk told us what he thinks about the coaching rotations at Shakhtar, Dnipro-1 and Zorya.

- Recently, I had the opportunity to hear the assessment of Oleksandr Kucher and Yevhen Krasnikov's work at Dnipro-1 by the honorary president of the Dnipro club, Yuriy Bereza, and it was quite bad, to put it mildly...

- I think this is an undeserved criticism. The team under Kucher's leadership took second place in the Ukrainian championship, and achieved this virtually without legionnaires. It is impossible to say that Oleksandr Kucher, who has been playing football for many years, playing for Shakhtar and the Ukrainian national team, is a swindler... The same applies to Krasnikov, who created a lot in the UPL, achieved a lot, and, in the end, brought enough qualified players from Metalist to Dnipro-1, and they continue to play for the Dnipro team.

- You also mentioned the fact that Shakhtar took Jovicevic from Dnipro-1 and van Leeuwen from Zorya, which had a negative impact on the progress of these teams. Do you agree with this?

- Coaching transfers are inevitable, nothing can be done. Yes, these specialists worked well and raised Dnipro-1 and Zorya to a good level, but the mutual process took place - Jovicevic and van Leeuwen improved their reputations significantly. And what they say about the coaches afterwards... At the moment, Dnipro-1 are very happy with Yurii Maksymov, but remember what Vorskla said when it became known that he was leaving the Poltava team.

- Probably, the downside is that Ukrainian football lost both Jovicevic and van Leeuwen as a result of these coaching turmoil...

- Firstly, I'm sure that Jovicevic and van Leeuwen will psychologically recover from all this in a year. Secondly, I believe that Ukrainian football has not suffered from their departure. The foreign coaches will be replaced by our young specialists. A year and a half ago, many people believed in the work of Yuriy Kalitvintsev and Vitaliy Ponomaryov, or even just appreciated it. But look at where Polissia and Rukh are now, and what people say about their performances, about the emergence of many young and promising players in these teams.

- So, Jovicevic and van Leeuwen left, and there were no consequences?

- Why not? They gave Ukrainian football something useful, and I am grateful to them for that. I would note that when Shakhtar invites you to work, any coach from the UPL would leave. Yes, it's a shame about Zorya, which is currently in crisis. However, we should pay attention to the way Zorya approached the search for a replacement for Patrick van Leeuwen - they chose a coach who was supposed to lay the foundation for the team's summer training in the off-season very poorly. Lalatović's arrival at Zorya was a gross mistake. Immediately after his appointment, I said that this is Zorya's course for relegation from the UPL.

Oleg Semenchenko