Former captain of Kyiv’s Dynamo Oleh Luzhnyi shared his thoughts on the work of his former team’s Russian coaches — Yurii Syomin and Valerii Gazzaev.
Oleh Luzhnyi— As for the era of Russian coaches in Dynamo, I believe that neither Syomin nor Gazzaev contributed anything to the global development of the club. Yes, local successes occurred, but if we look at the work of the Russians in the context of the history of Kyiv’s Dynamo, the conclusion will be unflattering.
Many argue with me: they say, under Syomin, we became champions and reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup. But why didn’t Syomin achieve anything beyond that? The thing is, his arrival brought results thanks to the novelty effect, as he was the first coach not from the “Dynamo” system. Syomin was more of a dad to the players than a head coach (this is also a skill, so we should give him credit). He could joke with the footballers, and the distance in communication was very short. He revamped the team — signed Vukojević, Hilʹteme, Yaremchuk, Betao. In addition, the youth matured: Milevskyi, Kravets, Aliyev.
Syomin played absolutely non-“Dynamo” football, not using the flanks. He generally forbade the full-backs from attacking high. Journalists repeatedly asked him about this, to which he replied:
— Who told you that you can’t play without flanks?
According to his system of play, central and wide defenders had to remain in defense, plus the holding midfielder. Four to five players for defense. The training process was mainly based on “squares”. The main thing that Syomin managed to do was to relax the team and instill faith in themselves. I have something to compare it with, as I worked in various coaching staffs of Dynamo,” wrote Luzhnyi in the pages of his autobiographical book “Without Compromises. The Honest Story of Our Football.”
