Famous Ukrainian coach, former coach of Tavria, Sevastopol Sergiy Puchkov analyzed the performance of the Ukrainian national team at Euro-2024.
Sergey Puchkov- Who, in your opinion, is guilty of the Ukraine national team fiasco?
- Everyone! Both the coaching staff and players. What should we do about it now? Let them reconsider their attitude and think about what and how. After all, you realize that Ukraine had no right to play so weakly and irresponsibly with the Romanians.
I warned even before the start of our national team in the European Championship that a lot will depend on the first match. So it finally happened. We lost this game with a big score and took the last place in the group. But if we had scored at least one point in it, everything would have been different. In this case, the mood for the next matches would have been different, and the game would have been more convincing. But as it was, the defeat against Romania turned out badly. In particular, it affected the team psychologically.
As for the draw with Belgium, it was something like a drowning man's cry.
- What do you say about the tactical scheme used by the Ukrainian national team in the game against the Belgians?
- I, as a coach, am also a supporter of the game in two strikers. Therefore, in the game against Belgium, the participation of Yaremchuk and Dovbik from the first minutes was correct. Although in that game I would have made a few changes in the lineup.
In general, I think that it is interesting to play with the 4-4-2 scheme. We just need to properly explain to the players what to do and how to do it. In this match we started to play five defenders. Are you going to beat the Belgians with so many defenders and two forwards? You know very well that it is not the same. And if we used the classic 4-4-2 - and I am sure that everything would have been different.
- Especially since the players of the Belgian national team did not look like themselves compared to the previous two matches....
- Nothing surprising. They were also worried about the result, and hoped to get it. Although the media say that the Belgians in the last minutes of the match, knowing how Slovakia and Romania played, also started to play for a draw. But these are their problems, not ours. We lost ours in the first game, and it was already difficult to catch up in the last match with such a serious opponent as Belgium.
What the Belgians did on the left wing Doku! I think that after this match our Tymchik slept well. Onana, invited to the national team from English Everton, made a lot of useful in the middle of the field. These two players showed themselves very well. But Tielemans, who scored in the previous match against Romania, fell out of the game.
- And who, despite the result, would you mark in our team?
- If on a five-point system, I would give an "A" to goalkeeper Trubin. And if you choose among the field players, it's hard to say. Our team has no stability. Tell me, who, except for the goalkeeper, played consistently at the continental championship? Nobody else! Take any of the players - everyone had failures.
- And Vitali Mikolenko?
- Yes, I agree, but he "broke down" again.
- Do you think it was not for nothing that the experienced Oleksandr Karavaev was left out of the Euro-2024 bid?
- Of course, he would have been useful for our team at the European Championship. I said in one of my interviews before the tournament that I had more sympathy for Karavaev than for other players in his position. But what to remember now - we need to think about what to do next. This is the most important thing at this stage.
- What grade would you give to the Ukrainian national team for the performance in the European Championship?
- If we use the five-point system, then two plus. And that is due to the fact that in the last game we managed to draw with a serious opponent. And what, I wonder, would we have done if we had conceded against Belgium? I am sure that we would not have scored. It's still good that there were a few moments in which the Belgians could not hit our goal.
But how did we not score when Yaremchuk did not give the ball to his partner, when there was a favorable moment? I do not understand.
What can you do, the Ukraine national team has no leader, who should have led his teammates. Someone whose word is law. What he said - that's what the partners should do. Someone who performs the duties of a head coach on the field. If there was such a person, maybe there would have been a chance to win against Belgium, not 0-0.
And many of my colleagues correctly say that at this European Championship some of our players sold themselves. They thought that they would beat Romania. But what came out of it - we all know very well.
Vyacheslav Kulchitsky
