Vladyslav Lupashko: "At this stage, we shouldn't distract Myron Bohdanovych"

Head coach of Lviv's Karpaty U-19 Vladyslav Lupashko spoke about his move to Lviv, introduced his coaching staff and shared the team's plans.

- Vladyslav, we welcome you to Karpaty. What are your thoughts on starting a new job?

- Thank you! First of all, I would like to note that Karpaty is an ambitious club that strives to constantly move forward. This applies to everything: infrastructure, club organization, youth football and the first team. It seems as if you have joined a club that will push you to develop.

- Please tell us more about your coaching staff.

- My assistant will be Serhii Lavrynenko, who will be responsible for all training processes. In addition, he will work with the defense. Another assistant, Ihor Yermakov, will focus on our methodology. Bohdan Shust will work as a goalkeeper coach, and Vadym Shutenko will be a physical training coach. Serhiy Vertel will be responsible for the analytical part of our work.

- You will have to create a team almost from scratch, because Karpaty-2 has been reformed . The U-19 championship starts in August - do you think you will cope with the task?

- We will definitely do it. However, we have difficulties due to the lack of players born in 2006. Many players have moved to other teams, and we don't have a base year to work with. So we will solve this issue and look for young talents. We may have to play with a younger team. We will talk about this with the club's management - how they see this situation, what options will be available on the market, who we can sign or bring in from our Academy if the guys meet the required level.

- Did you follow the matches of Karpaty-2 last season?

- To be honest, no, I didn't. You know, when we do a certain job, we are very involved and focused on it. When we first came here, we had already started studying the players. However, the Ukrainian U-19 Championship is a completely different tournament, it is not the Second League. We need to analyze the players during sparring matches against their peers so that we understand our starting point. We have not yet made a decision on the control matches, because we do not know how many players we will have for the training camp. On July 1, we are going to Zakarpattia, and by that time we have to decide on the team. So now we will spend a lot of time watching the players.

- Ingulets was one of the oldest teams in the First League, and now you have to work with young players. How do you feel about this challenge?

- Football is always about challenges and difficulties. I would not say that Ingulets is such an old team. It's just that we had both guys of decent football age and youngsters at our disposal. We created a certain balance. However, Karpaty now have a slightly different specificity - they work exclusively with young people. Serhiy Lavrynenko and Ihor Yermakov have worked with young guys before, so they have already told me about the nuances and specifics. In any case, everything will be decided on the football field. Players must understand that there are requirements that must be met. It doesn't matter how old you are. You either do what the coaching staff asks or you don't.

- What is your goal for the upcoming season?

- We will be able to do it when we finally form the team. Because now we realize that there is no team as such. We are looking at young guys, forming a team. I have already mentioned the absence of players born in 2006. We also need to understand how many players born in 2005 we can keep. We will determine the task after the completion of the recruitment process.

- Tell us about your communication with Myron Markevych - have you had time to talk to the head coach of Karpaty?

- Now Myron Markevich is actively involved in the transfer policy of the first team. I think that at this stage we shouldn't distract him. Of course, we met and talked. I am convinced that there will be no problems in the future, we will have a quality dialog. We have common goals in the context of building the club vertical.