Well-known football expert Alexander Sopko noted the coaching work of Ruslan Rotan in «Oleksandriya».
Alexander Sopko— Currently, new teams have appeared on our football map that are already becoming leading. And if we have already gotten used to «Kryvbas», which is demonstrating adult football for the second year, with an experienced coach, ambitious president, and a developing club infrastructure, along with nearly flawless invitations for players, particularly foreigners, then the appearance of «Polissya» in the UPL and the return of «Karpaty» is delightful. Thus, new football centers have emerged. The presidents of these clubs do not claim that we urgently need results, that we will go to Europe because they are very ambitious. They talk about fundamental things: to build infrastructure, create stadiums, invest in academies, and then step by step move towards good football. This approach resonates with me.
Finally, «Oleksandriya» has awaited the time when it can realistically fight for at least prize places. If they maintain the squad and strengthen further, they can compete for the championship. I believe that the patience and trust given to the coaching staff in «Oleksandriya» will eventually bear fruit. I really hope that «Oleksandriya» will achieve its maximum this season. They have everything for this — a balanced squad and good internal relationships between the coaching staff and players. Trust and understanding from the leadership should not be lost. When everything is going well, you cannot lose this advantage or let the situation slip out of control. Because time passes and much later you think: we had a chance, and we lost it, and there won't be a second chance. Strike while the iron is hot — this motto can also be applied to football.
Rotan has shown that he has been developing all these years, although the attitude towards him was both skeptical and openly disrespectful, sometimes even insulting, especially from journalists. He endured everything, stepped over it, stood his ground, achieved results with the youth national team, and managed to build a proper process, assemble the right team, persuade the management of the correctness of this path, and establish a game. Now we see that the players who were in «Oleksandriya» before have reached a new level, we see players who were completely unknown a few years ago, and those who have already become respectable-age national team players, we have seen invited legionnaires who are genuinely becoming some of the best in our championship. Therefore, such work speaks to his level as a coach.
As for the other coaches, I don't want to offend anyone, but some of them have remained at their level and deserve the evaluations they had previously. This includes Yuriy Maksymov, Yuriy Vernydub, Vitaliy Ponomaryov. It's nice to see the emergence of a specialist named Vladislav Lupashko. I haven't given Imad Ashur any evaluations because it's hard to see any progress with «Polissya». This is the first adult team he is working with. By the end of the season, it will be possible to evaluate Ashur, or after his work with several teams.
Andres Carrasco didn't manage to reveal himself, although the conditions in LNZ are quite good. But that happens. The coaching profession is such that even a good specialist doesn’t always achieve results; sometimes it's the opposite," emphasized Sopko.
