There is a trend in Ukrainian football now that some clubs have started to create their own second teams. The first of the UPL teams was Rukh Lviv, which entered the Second League last season.
Photo — fcdynamo.comNext season, Polissia, Vorskla and Oleksandriya will have a second team. I don't know what the fate of Karpaty-2 is, because they kept a second team because they didn't have a U-19.
The main reason for this idea is the desire to develop young players. The transition from youth to adult football is very difficult, so we need another step in the form of a youth team that will play in adult football. Players will man up and make progress faster.
This is a common European practice. For example, the leading academies in Europe are following this path. "Barcelona, Benfica, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund have their second teams where youngsters play against adult players. This way they adapt to adult football faster.
Based on the emergence of young players in the first teams of Barcelona, Benfica, and Ajax, this method is effective.
Dynamo had its own history with the second team. "Dynamo-2 played in the First League for a long time. Initially, there was no understudy championship, so players who did not play for the first team got practice. Later, the second Dynamo team became part of the player education system. They had their own separate application. Players who had outgrown the U-21s but were not up to the first team were given the opportunity to prove themselves. Serhii Rybalka, Roman Yaremchuk, Yevhen Volynets and many others went through Dynamo-2.
I am not sure that Dynamo needs to revive the second team today. There is no great need for it. There are not many players born in 2003-2005 in the system of the capital's club for whom it would be necessary to create this team. Samba Diallo has no stable playing practice in the first team. He can no longer play for the youth team. Thanks to his double application, he could play in the Second League. But he can be found on loan at the UPL level. The same is true for Anton Tsarenko and Naveen Malysh. Opportunities to develop there would be better. A footballer aged 20-21 should not play at the Second League level anymore, but try his hand at the UPL level if you have talent and feel the prospects. If you haven't developed to this age, no other team will help you. You need to go out on your own and find yourself.
The class of 2005 is about to graduate. They will still be able to play in the youth championship under the age limit. But there is no point in staying in the U-19 for almost anyone. Except for Taras Mikhavko, if he is between the first and youth teams. Perhaps Oleksii Husieva and Roman Salenko, if they have prospects in the first team. For the rest of them, it makes no sense to play at this level for the third year. The number of such players is very small - defenders Balaba, Syzonyuk, Kotukha, midfielders Vasilets, Yanchyshyn, Kremchanin, Matkevich and forward Gerich. I doubt very much that any of these players have any prospects of reaching the first team. It makes no sense to create a second team for the sake of 8 players.
We can, of course, involve the 2006 and even 2007 class, but they have somewhere else to play - two U-19 youth teams. It is unlikely that they are ready to move to adult football now. This can only have the opposite effect - injuries due to physical overload.
Serhii Tyshchenko
