Ukrainian coach and expert Oleh Fedorchuk commented on the recognition of Ivan Kalyuzhny as the best player of the Ukraine national team's match against the Czech Republic (1-1) in the League of Nations.
Oleg Fedorchuk- Kalyuzhny? Why? He played poorly in the first game. It's just that he was expected to fail, but he didn't, and everyone is happy. The fans' expectations of his level of play were lowered from the beginning. In the match against the Czech Republic, he lost his position, he lacked speed, he didn't play offensively at all. If we turn to a comparison, we can say that Kalyuzhny is a Zhiguli and Brazhko is a Mercedes. Kalyuzhny only hinders the opponent's play, while Brazhko even plays well on the attack.
I understand the fans' sympathy for Ivan: the guy comes out and gives his all on the field, but you have to watch the game, you can't go far on desire alone. In my opinion, Stepanenko played even better than Kalyuzhny against the Czechs. Taras was the best on the field for 40 minutes.
There are no players in the world today with such characteristics as Ivan's among ambitious teams that claim to be something. The last so-called pure center back was N'Golo Kante, and he later retrained and began to play more offensively than before. The national team talks about modern football, but here Kalyuzhny is a complete retro. Georgia played very slowly, so he didn't have as much trouble as he did with the Czechs. It's scary to imagine what will happen in the support area if we play with him against the top teams. But again, Kalyuzhny helped the team out in a personnel crisis, and I am grateful for that. I am impressed by his desire not to take up any more work. But people drink beer and listen to commentators..." Fedorchuk said.
