On Wednesday, August 21, Dynamo Kyiv will play the first match of the Champions League qualifying playoffs against Salzburg. On the eve of the match, EuroFootball.com.ua spoke to the eminent Ukrainian coach Vyacheslav Grozny to find out more about how both teams approach the upcoming confrontation.
"I am sure that we all like the way Dynamo plays. The atmosphere within the team is so comfortable, calm and cool. "Dynamo are well done, they have strengthened themselves, they have made the competition high, quite serious. A player of such a level as Pikhalenok keeps everyone on their toes. Everyone will give it their all: Shaparenko, Buyalsky, I won't list them all. Bragaru is also a versatile player who will help. Rubchynskyi is also announced, he looked great in Dnipro-1.
Dynamo already has a good squad, especially in the attacking group. Yes, there are quite young defenders. Why? Because it's hard to find a defender of a very high level: they are either abroad or, if they are very talented, they are immediately sold, like Zabarnyi.
I like the way Dynamo plays, how much they create. Some people say: "Dynamo has a non-Dynamo style". I smile. Of course, every club has its own philosophy, its own vision, its own style. "Dynamo, while maintaining the main directions of its style (work on the flanks, pressure, collective selection, playing ahead), has added a culture of working with the ball, a group of constructive players.
I am impressed with the way Dynamo plays. They now have two almost equivalent squads, which is very important. The head coach and the coaching staff can adjust what they do when they have league matches, still paying attention to the result, and European Cup matches. This is very important, everyone will get the appropriate playing practice.
Dynamo has the opportunity to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League, which I and all Ukrainians believe in. I just like the whole atmosphere around Dynamo: no scandals, no gossip. Players and coaches are engaged in creative work. Of course, someone plays better, someone makes mistakes."
Analyzing the situation in Salzburg, Grozny first of all drew attention to the extremely effective management system of Salzburg. The club has been in the Red Bull system for almost 20 years.
During this time, the club has seen many players who went on to become stars and who brought Salzburg a lot of money for their sales.
"We all need to understand who we are playing against and when. "Salzburg is a team of the Red Bull system. This is a very important point. There were Trappatoni and Mateus, Ko Adrianse, Hub Stevens.
But the Red Bull empire began to make serious progress and successes after persuading Gerard Houllier to become the curator of this ambitious project. He appointed Ralph Rangnick, who, together with Helmut Gross, had revolutionized football tactics in Germany, as the curator of Leipzig and Salzburg. Rangnick appointed Christoph Freund as his assistant, and the club's conveyor belt of creative success was launched.
Hive immediately set priorities: buying young players from all over the world; building aggressive attacking football; improving results; successful transfers for the club budget. The club's philosophy is scouting, a high-quality system of training young talented players, results and successful transfers.
After three years of supervision, Rangnick focused on Leipzig and left Freund in his place. Freund continued to work using his core qualities. Speed, intelligence, a balanced psyche, good character, creativity - these are Freund's basic and mandatory requirements for his players.
In eight years of independent work, Freund earned 586 million euros and spent 169 million euros. He made a profit of 400 million euros. That's why he became the sporting director of Bayern Munich.
"Salzburg did not become the Austrian champion for the first time in 10 years. They were two points behind Sturm Graz, although they were four points ahead after the first round. Then they blew it. They finished second, but for the first time in ten years they are playing in the Champions League qualifiers.
They lost to Sturm in the 1/2 finals of the Austrian Cup and fired coach Gerhard Struber and put in U-19 coach Onur Sinel. I believe that you can't change coaches like that, give them a chance to work on it - the team was in first place. In July, the team was led by Jurgen Klopp's former assistant Pepijn Leinders. Recently, Salzburg has had fewer bright personalities. In addition, this summer, the Red Bulls sold two more of their leaders, Strahinja Pavlovic and Luka Sucic.
Now they have a lot of injured players, including their leader Karim Konate, who scored 22 goals and 8 assists last season. Their main goalkeeper Schlager is also injured. They took the Japanese Takuma Kawamura for 1.5 million euros, but he is injured. They had to urgently loan goalkeeper Janis Blasvich from Leipzig. Umar Sole, who played alongside Pavlovic, is preparing for a transfer, so he is not playing. But mediocre young players do not come there, they take very talented ones.
The club's philosophy remains the same - they have a very fast, aggressive pressing team. They get the ball back pretty quickly through pressure. But it's strange to me that lately they don't get the ball back in the attacking zone, they make a middle block and get the ball back there more.
I saw that a large group of players are not working to the end, and sometimes they leave two defenders against three attackers in Twente (Salzburg's opponent in the third qualifying round of the Champions League - ed.) or three-in-three, hoping that there will be a quick attack and they will go to the opponent's goal. They want to act like "we will score one more goal than you will score". The attacking group doesn't really want to do the dirty work. They are great at attacking, but not at defense.
Moreover, they are not very good on set pieces. "Twente scored twice from a corner kick. They don't keep the players focused. They keep them in zones, they don't play personally. People jump out from under them and shoot. In principle, Salzburg could not have passed Twente.
Dynamo has great chances. Why? Salzburg does not have the reliable defense that it used to have. Most players do not have the starting speed. They have a high line, and it's easy to run behind that line. In any case, this should be used. If they continue to play with a high line, we have a great chance. If the line is a little lower, then there are fewer chances to pass like that, but we play differently.
Most likely, they will try to turn on the high tempo from the first seconds, they have a high intensity of play, they try to do everything as intensely as possible, but with a big shortage. They are not satisfied with the average pace, they do not want the opponent to control the ball well. They will interfere, refine.
They play very vertically, they make a lot of passes behind the defenders, so you need insurance. Individually, the attacking group is quite strong, they can beat one-on-one. But without main strikers, they try to play wingers.
Individually, they are capable players, but there is no team. Every six months the team changes. This is a different philosophy than Dynamo's. Kyiv retain their leaders. When there is an offer that cannot be refused, they sell," Grozny said.
Anton Hreskiv