Dynamo's youth team has completed preparations for the second part of the season. Ihor Kostiuk's charges spent the winter training in Turkey alongside the first team.
Фото — fcdynamo.comThere were no significant personnel changes in the off-season. There are no newcomers. Losses are the possible involvement of players in the main team. Actually, this is a natural process. After the training camp, two players - Oleksii Husiev and Taras Mikhavko - have every chance of getting a foothold in the first team.
The winter training camp was supposed to help some players who missed a lot of games in the first part of the season return to the squad. Now they had the opportunity to gain game and physical tone. David Bilyi, Vladyslav Kalyn, Andrii Matkevych, and Yurii Avramenko worked with the team to the fullest.
Unfortunately, there is a reverse process - midfielder Roman Salenko and defender Denys Dykyi did not work with the team in the general group. Defender Maksym Korobov did not play in any sparring matches. Goalkeeper Vyacheslav Surkis had his appendix removed, so he missed the second part of the training camp. Forward Vladyslav Gerich started playing only towards the end of the training camp. Salenko became a leading U-19 player at the end of the first part of the season. Gerich had a good start to the season but was injured in October. Dykyi started the season as the main left-back, but then lost the competition for a place in the squad. Surkis was the team's main goalkeeper and played in each of the 17 matches (the best performance among all players).
Central midfielder Maksym Vasylets was not even on the training camp roster. This is a player who was called up to the national team in his year. I understand that he also has an injury.
Ihor Kostiuk took some of the young players from the U-17 team to the training camp - Bohdan Redushko, Oleksii Rybak and Pavlo Liusin. The latter was born in 2008. Volodymyr Ozymai, although born in 2007, has already played for the youth team in autumn.
The Dynamo youth team will start the second part of the season without their main goalkeeper. Vyacheslav Surkis had his appendix removed. He did not play in sparring matches during the second part of the training camp.
Mykyta Hudymenko was practising at the goalkeeper position during the training camp. He is a graduate of Lokomotiv Kyiv who joined Dynamo in the winter of 2023. We should also not discount Serhii Kiblytskyi and Yurii Avramenko.
Competition has never hurt anyone. That's why it's great that four goalkeepers will be competing for a place in the youth team's goal in the spring. Because in the autumn Surkis had no alternative.
Oleksiy Rybak may become the main right-back. The 16-year-old native of Khmelnytskyi proved himself at his best during the winter training camp. Rybak can also play on the opposite flank. It all depends on Oleksiy Gusev's prospects in the first team. Tymchyk's injury made Gusev Jr. formally the second right-back in the team's hierarchy.
The story is similar with Taras Mikhavko. The Lviv native has one foot in the first team. This is a big loss for the youth team. Ihor Kostiuk has various options - two players born in 2005, Taras Balaba and Yegor Syzonyuk, plus two players born in 2006, Maksym Korobov and Vladyslav Zakharchenko. The Balaba-Sizoniuk pair is likely to be the main one. They played together in the 2005 national team at the U-17 level. Korobov and Zakharchenko are also players of the Ukrainian national team born in 2006. Zakharchenko did not play much for the youth team in autumn.
The left-back position is also not good. Denys Dykyi started the season, but then began to lose competition to Ivan Kotusia, who is expected to become the main player in the spring. Dykyi did not take part in any sparring matches in the winter. Young Rybak can play in this position.
In the middle of the field, Kostiuk has a large selection of players - David Bilyi, Danylo Ishchenko, Nazar Yashchyshyn, Kyrylo Osypenko, Roman Salenko, Volodymyr Ozymai and young Pavlo Lyusin. Competition hasn't hurt anyone yet. Ishchenko, Osypenko and Bilyi are set to start the season as the main players, but further transformations in the middle of the field are obvious.
There is competition on the flanks. I really hope that it will not happen that the central midfielder Yanchyshyn plays on the left flank, because there is no one to play there. At the beginning of the season, Kyrylo Pashko had health problems. Then Andriy Matkevych was seriously injured. Vladyslav Kalyn did not play the second part of the season due to injury. Dmytro Kremchanin had his own problems. Now it seems that everyone is in the line-up. Matkevych, Kremchanin and Pashko were tried out at the first team level. These three will be the main ones. Kalyn's position is a little weaker.
Matvii Ponomarenko failed to gain a foothold in the first team. Therefore, the best scorer of the youth championship will get practice and gain skills in Ihor Kostiuk's team. When Matvey worked with the first team, there was no adequate replacement for him in the U-19. It's good that Gerich has recovered, but his playing and physical form leaves much to be desired. Vitalii Lobko has not impressed so far.
We shouldn't expect anything new in terms of game construction or personnel issues from Dynamo's youth team in the spring. It is very important that the young players of 2006, who joined the team in the summer, have grown older and gained relevant experience. There should be more stability now.
In autumn, there were a lot of injuries and damages. Hence the issue of lack of chemistry. If I'm not mistaken, the U-19s have never worked in the optimal line-up. Someone always had some problems. Before the start of the second part of the season, there are losses again.
I am glad that yesterday's young men are embarking on the path of adult football. Pashko and Osypenko have got physically stronger over the winter.
There will be competition and depth in the squad. Now Kostyuk has a large selection of players. We need to use the available potential. In addition, talented youngsters born in 2007-2008 are already knocking on the team's door. We should expect Rybak and Lucin to make their U-19 debuts.
The centre of defence is the biggest concern. Without Mykhavko, there may be problems there, although the names seem to be fine. Now we need to justify the advances to Balaba, Syzonyuk, Zakharchenko and Krobov. It is very important to concentrate on every moment. We had problems with this in the autumn.
Kostiuk's experience (in office since 2017), the depth of the squad and the class of players (Ponomarenko, Kremchanin, Makevych, Osypenko) open up very good prospects for the youth team in the fight for the championship and guaranteed entry into the UEFA Youth League.
Serhii Tyshchenko
