The product of Donetsk Shakhtar’s academy, Vladlen Yurchenko, shared his memories of one of the club’s former head coaches, Mircea Lucescu.
— You frequently went on training camps with Mircea Lucescu’s prime Shakhtar. What do you remember about the training process?
— When I first went to the training camp, I was, it seems, 16 years old. It was very, very difficult. I can still say it was the hardest training camp of my career.
Every day we did a lot of running work, the training was intense because the squad was strong at the time. Players were used to playing and training at a high level. In the first days, I couldn’t understand what was happening. Where was I running to? What’s happening to me? What’s wrong with my legs? What’s happening with my breathing? I remembered it for life.
Lucescu organized ball possession in small spaces with many people — nine-on-nine, ten-on-ten. And if one team took control of the ball, the other couldn’t take it away for a long time. It still surprises me, and I’ve been to many places.
— Was Mister truly biased against Ukrainians?
— From what I saw, yes, that really happened. Of course, he fussed over Brazilians like Fernandinho, Jadson, Douglas Costa, as they say, and was stricter with our players. For any mistake, or even if the episode was 50/50, the Ukrainian was at fault, not the Brazilian.
Dmytro Vyenko