Sergiy Tyshchenko's column. Popov's progress

I am very pleased that Denis Popov has started to justify the advances he was given. Over the past six months, the Dynamo center back has made significant progress. There are still mistakes, like in the technically home game against Rangers, but in general, the player's level has increased significantly.

Popov has been with Dynamo's first team since 2019. Oleksiy Mykhailychenko began to let him join the first team. Unfortunately, there was no stability due to injuries, lack of composure, too many emotions, hasty or wrong decisions. Denys lacked self-confidence.

Now a lot has changed for the better. Popov has become calm, cool, and confident. He has significantly improved in reading the game, insuring his partners, and choosing his position. Denys Popov is no longer a mountain of muscles and a power struggle, but a rather intelligent player, the leader of the team's defense. There is a sense of class and reliability.

I can assume that such changes are related to the arrival of Oleksandr Shovkovskyi as a coach. First of all, Denys has changed mentally. The naked eye can see that Shovkovskyi works with Popov not only in terms of football, but also psychology. The mental changes are obvious.

This is not the first player who has made significant progress since Shovkovskyi's arrival. Vladislav Kabaev went through the same path earlier. There were also serious expectations from him, which he could not confirm on the field. And then Kabaev played, opened up. He became a completely different player. The change of coach at Dynamo did him good.

For Dynamo, the emergence of a defense leader is a very important thing. Because in recent years this problem has been very acute. Ilya Zabarnyi left for England and there was no stability in terms of central defenders. Different options were tried, but there was no success. Now Popov is becoming the chief of defense. When you have such a player, it is easier for others, no matter who plays with him.

It is very important that there are no injuries. In recent months, everything has been fine in this regard. Popov's last health problems date back to the end of 2023. He played the second part of last season without injury. The training camp under pressure also did not bring any problems. Thanks to this, the player felt some stability in himself.

Popov's reaching a new level is important not only for Dynamo, but also for the national team, because there is no viable alternative to the Zabarnyi-Matvienko pair. Oleksandr Svatok left for the United States. Maksym Taloverov frankly disappointed at the Olympics, and before that in a friendly match against Poland for the national team. Valery Bondar's level is not very high. Therefore, Popov's prospects of not only getting called up to the Ukrainian national team again, but also playing for the national team are very high in the fall.

Serhiy Tyshchenko