Jozsef Szabo: "Mudryk did anti-advertisement for our players with his performances for Chelsea"

Former Dynamo coach Jozsef Szabo expressed his opinion on some Ukrainian footballers who play in the Ukrainian league and abroad.

- Jozsef Jozsefowicz, there is information that Metalist 1925 may sign Rakitskiy in the summer. Do you believe in this development?

- To be honest, it looks like a fake. It is still necessary for Metalist 1925 to stay in the UPL, and their chances of relegation are very high. Probably, Pushich did not need Yaroslav, because he does not play him. Rakitskiy is already 34 years old, where should he go back and forth? My opinion is that he needs to retire from football and not suffer, since Shakhtar didn't need him.

- Do you think Rakitskiy will agree to play in the first league if Metalist 1925 is relegated?

- I am not sure that he will agree to play in the first league. I repeat, at this age, he should have already finished. Rakitskiy should have thought about what to do earlier. He should have taken a coaching course, got a diploma and coached a team in the second or first league. Maybe he had some other plans, I don't know.

- Why did Skrypnyk need Rakytskyi?

- Because the coach can't recruit good players - we simply don't have them! If someone appears, he immediately goes to Europe. Legionnaires are afraid to come to us, they all ran away from Dnipro-1. I don't envy Maksymov, he has almost no team left. There's a war going on and people are running away, there's nothing we can do about it. Our players have never travelled to Poland before.

- Your point is clear - Rakitskiy needs to finish. But still, according to his level, is he able to strengthen Metalist 1925?

- Of course! Rakitskiy has the skill, he has a good left foot, excellent long passes. But age is age and there is no escaping it.

- Metalist 1925 has another ageing star, Denys Harmash.

- He has the same situation as Rakitskiy. I advise these guys to graduate, since they are not suitable for Shakhtar and Dynamo.

- Do you think Skrypnyk made a mistake by taking over Metalist 1925?

- I'm actually surprised: why did Skrypnyk take this team? Perhaps Vorskla don't pay his salary or he had a quarrel with the management, otherwise I don't understand his choice. In Poltava, after all, there was a mid-table team to work with, and Metalist 1925 is relegated. The Kharkiv club can only be helped by Minaj and Veres, who are also not shining this season. They are the only ones we can hope for.

- Oleksandr Khatskevych, who is not averse to working in the UPL, is currently without a club. Do you think he can strengthen any Ukrainian team?

- I don't understand at all who persuaded Sasha to take over that ill-fated Polish club [Zagłębie Sosnowiec]. In Ukraine, Khatskevich is accepted, but in another country, no one knows him. So it turned out that he was almost beaten.

As for his return to Ukraine, I think that Khatskevich should take a team from the second league and lead it to the first, and then to the UPL. He is unlikely to lead a Premier League team straight away.

- Are you happy with any of the players in the current Ukrainian championship?

- We don't have any great players! For me, number 1 is Brazhko. He will be the first to go abroad. He has good qualities: selection, vision of the field, passing, a great shot. I don't see another such player in the Ukrainian championship.

- And Sudakov?

- He does not impress me. Yes, Sudakov is efficient, but I don't see him working well in the selection as a midfielder. There's a lot of writing about him, but Shakhtar are used to stirring up interest in their players in order to sell them for a lot, just like Mudryk. But after Mudryk, our players are not very well bought. Mykhailo did anti-advertising for our players with his performances for Chelsea.

I don't understand how the London club watched him at all! What qualities did they see in him? Mudryk has nothing but speed! Opponents have been reading him for a long time and there is insurance, no one plays one-on-one against Mudryk anymore. That's why he can't do anything in the Premier League. He is an overrated player.

Andrii Piskun