Famous Ukrainian coach Oleg Fedorchuk shared his impressions of the second playoff match of the Nations League between the national teams of Belgium and Ukraine.
— From the very first minutes of the match in Genk, it became clear that the “ostrich” behavior of the Ukrainian national team was doomed to failure. The bet on a deaf defense was strategically wrong. It indicated that the coach Serhiy Rebrov had no clear plan on how to complicate the Belgians' ball control.
— In your opinion, what tactics should our team have followed?
— The same scheme as a few days ago in Murcia — 4−1−4−1. Yes, it is conservative, but it often brought us dividends. And when five defenders and four midfielders only think about how to clear the ball away, there is no benefit from having striker Vladyslav Vanat on the field. He was simply undernourished, while attacks rolled one after the other onto the guests' possession.
— Why, in your opinion, was there no constructiveness in the guests' actions?
— And where would it come from when Oleksandr Zinchenko was relocated to the right flank of the defense, and another midfielder who could play unconventionally — Heorhiy Sudakov — again acted on the left for some reason and was invisible. By the way, the Belgians quickly identified the vulnerable spot in the Ukrainian defense and attacked the positions protected by Zinchenko. Well, the main thing was that a whole group of key performers had not recovered in time. We are talking about Ivan Kalyuzhny, Illia Zabarnyi, Mykola Matviyenko, Oleksiy Hutsulyak, Viktor Tsygankov. It seemed they were dreaming of one thing: how to end this nightmare in Genk as quickly as possible.
— That a wrong tactic was chosen is obvious, but Serhiy Rebrov had the opportunity to correct the situation by introducing “fresh” players.
— You know, if a few days ago the match in Murcia was a showcase for coach Rebrov, in Genk he did not avoid failure. The coach miscalculated with the substitutions unlike his Belgian colleague Rudi Garcia, who confidently avenged this time.
Yesterday, I was unpleasantly surprised not only by Rebrov but also by his players, except for perhaps goalkeeper Andriy Lunin. The Nations League, although it doesn't compare with the World or European Championships, is a great opportunity to make a loud statement on the international stage. However, with such a game, it is unrealistic to find oneself on the “radar” of renowned scouts; on the contrary, figuratively speaking, the stocks only decrease.
Of course, you need to be inside the team to know for sure why our players were so helpless yesterday. There are plenty of questions, in particular, it is unclear why Oleksandr Svatok appeared on the field; perhaps it would have been better to start Artem Dovbyk. He is respected in Europe, and with his presence, the hosts' defenders would not have pushed forward so boldly with their numbers.
The saddest thing is that the Belgians did not show anything extraordinary; our team simply played very poorly. Therefore, the chance to break into the elite division of the Nations League was wasted. The coaching staff needs to work productively on correcting mistakes in the near future. Because with such an attitude towards their duties, our team has no chance in the World Cup qualifiers.
Andriy Pysarenko
