Famous journalist Igor Linnik commented on the global problems of the Ukrainian national team against the backdrop of the draw (1:1) in yesterday's World Cup 2026 qualifying match against Azerbaijan.
Igor Linnik"...And to be serious, the reasons for the failures of the Ukrainian national team are clear and visible to the naked eye. No microscope or AI is needed here.
Its best players, potential leaders, namely our legionnaires, except for Trubin and Zabarnyi (who are indeed the team leaders), lack regular playing time in their foreign clubs.
Zinchenko has been sitting on the bench without playtime for several seasons. Yarermchuk and Malynovskyi have also fallen far behind. It seems that Dovbik has joined them as well. Tsygankov, if not injured, is also not in the best shape. Lunin and Bouschan, as you know, are not the first-choice keepers. Yarmoluk is still young, so we don’t have many questions regarding him yet.
Let’s not forget Mudryk, who has found himself in a deep rut, which many are starting to suspect is linked to the mysterious inner workings... of our national team.
The best players in the UPL, whom we had included in our discussions up until September, like Sudakov and Vanat, have not performed impressively in the Eurocup qualifiers while playing for their top UPL clubs.
Kiev’s Dynamo, as we know, with Shaparenko and Brazhko, Yarmolenko and the same Vanat, has only managed to overcome the champion of Malta with great efforts and stress.
And Shakhtar, with all its Azerbaijani players, barely clung to the Conference League. However, many of its national team members in their home clubs are not always playing leading roles.
Well, that’s probably all there is. Because there seem to be no other efforts being made, able to somewhat replace those who are permanently out of shape, available with Rebrov. Yes, there were timid hopes associated with some candidates that emerged from the "Polesie" team, but they also had recently managed to lose to a choir of monks from Andorra.
So, 1:1 in Azerbaijan — this is not the most beautiful result yet, but still just the beginning..." - wrote Linnik on his Facebook page.
