The head coach of the Ukraine U-21 national team, Unai Melgosa, spoke about the specifics of the training camp in November, the principles of team formation, and the shuffle in the coaching staff.
— Unai, playing friendly matches against Portugal and Italy is already recognition of our team’s status, strength, and potential. What other goals and objectives do you see for these international friendlies?
— Thanks to the fact that the team has already qualified for the U21 European Championship, we have the opportunity to play friendly matches against Italy and Portugal, which are also participants in the 2025 European Championship in Slovakia.
It is important for us that we can play two friendly games against national teams of such a level, which have a considerable international experience, and matches of this kind will bring us great benefits.
— The goal and significance of the November camp, probably, is also related to the specifics of this period: after all, it is rare for the youth team to have a chance to conduct thoughtful training camps focused on the future, as most of the time efforts were directed towards the tournament results…
— Yes. The second reason [to hold such training camps at the end of autumn] is that this will allow us not to interrupt the process of building the playing model that has been ongoing for some time. And in the context of continuing the team’s development, this is also an opportunity to review a whole number of players and integrate them into the process, laying the foundation for the coming years. After all, in the fall of 2023, the U-21 team had 4 to 8% of players born in 2004, and by this September, it is 22%.
— The composition of the youth national team also differs from the usual. What are the features of the list of summoned players for these friendlies? What considerations led you to form it in this way? I am specifically referring to some players being absent from the team list.
— Regarding the formation of the list for this training camp, we certainly take into account that this segment of the season is very busy for clubs like Dynamo and Shakhtar, which participate in European competitions. And, accordingly, this is an opportunity to lighten the load for some players from these clubs.
In this way, such changes also allow us to involve new footballers in the process of building a team for the future. It also gives us the chance to re-evaluate players who have previously been involved with the U-21 national team.
— Changes were also not limited only to players. Tell us about the personnel reinforcement and the reasons for the rotations in the coaching staff.
— Regarding the coaching staff and globally the coaching personnel, we do not have the vision that staffs should be closed. They should constantly interact with each other, there should be a process of communication and interaction. That is why we ourselves initiate such changes and rearrangements, so that all coaches have the opportunity to recognize players from different generations and understand the situation of the entire vertical of the national teams, as well as share with each other details of their professional competencies.
By communicating and working together on a daily basis, the coaches share experiences, perspectives, and views on various aspects of the training process. Thus, this leads to the improvement of the overall approach to working with players at all levels. Therefore, it was decided that Volodymyr Yezerskyi, who was with U-21, will go with the U-19 team, while Vyacheslav Shevchuk will be with U-21.
Dmytro Chornobai