In the 2021/22 season, Dynamo could have claimed victory in the UEFA Youth League. Ihor Kostiuk's team went through the group round in one breath. With huge personnel losses, they defeated Spanish Deportivo in the 1/16 finals. All plans were changed by the war.
Samba Diallo. Photo by Yurii YurievSome of the players from that team are already playing at the first team level. Today, Volodymyr Brazhko is Dynamo's mainstay. Nazar Voloshyn scored 4 goals in the first part of the UPL. Maksym Dyachuk is getting regular game practice in the centre of defence. Kostiantyn Vivcharenko, Ruslan Neshcheret, Anton Tsarenko are rotational players. Naveen Malysh is a substitute. Oleksandr Yatsyk, Ihor Horbach and Anton Bol will gain experience on loan. It turns out that 6-7 players are already in the first team, and three more players have a chance to get there.
But the most important thing is that the main star of that team has not yet realised his talent. We are talking about Samba Diallo. After the UEFA Youth League, Bayern Munich and Manchester City were interested in the Senegalese. In reality, Samba looked cool thanks to his commanding speed, plasticity and, oddly enough, ego. But this season, he has played only 2 UPL matches and 72 minutes.
Mircea Lucescu did not look in Diallo's direction. After a successful Youth League, UEFA did not even take the African to the winter training camp. I understand that Samba didn't really fit into Lucescu's tactical picture of wingers-insiders. Somewhere along the line, Gio Tsitaishvili failed. Lucescu had certain requirements for the wing players, and it's not like he used their strengths.
If you don't count on a player, if he doesn't fit into your tactical plans, then let him go on loan to get playing practice. Due to his age, Diallo could no longer play in the youth championship, and you need to play to develop. The first half of the season Samba can only be recorded as a liability. He cannot boast of any progress at all. If he had gone to Zorya/Kryvbas/Chornomorets/Olexandria, etc. in the summer, today he could have been a player who could really claim to be in Dynamo's first team.
If Diallo is not expected in the second part, then you should think about a loan. He needs to play for the sake of development. The club needs to develop its assets. There should be some certainty at least after the first winter training camp.
Many people say that Samba is just a runner who is very dependent on space, and that he can only play selfish football and does not always work for the defence. While these qualities bring success at the youth level, problems arise in adult football. In fact, this is the reason why he has problems with a difficult transition to adult football.
Nowadays, many people admire Beni Makuan from Polissia. Is his profile much different from Diallo's? He is a space-dependent player and not always ready to work in defence. Yurii Kalytvintsev just uses his strengths and hides his weaknesses as much as possible.
Mudryk is also dependent on speed. Playing defence, positional attack, power play are not his strengths at all. Until Roberto De Zerbi found an approach to him, he was not needed either. And then it turned out that he could be sold for a lot of money.
It's about the same with Diallo. He needs a coach who will trust him, who will use his strengths, not teach him how to play and change him. If it's not Shovkovskyi, then he needs a loan.
Serhii Tyshchenko
