The legendary Volyn coach Vitalii Kvartsyanyi expressed his thoughts on the recent poor results of Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian championship. Remember, the capital team lost the last three matches and is now 10 points behind the leading Shakhtar.
Vitalii Kvartsyanyi— Vitalii Vladimirovich, after the Conference League victory over Zrinjski, Dynamo lost twice in the championship and slipped to seventh place. How difficult will it be for the team to focus on the match against Omonia, especially from a psychological standpoint?
— The next opponent is one of the leaders of their championship. They are a qualified team, just like Dynamo. But Kyiv has been in turmoil lately. The goalkeeper lacks confidence, and there are struggles in defense. The manner of actions performed by the defenders has no prospects. Additionally, the load increases because the midfield plays poorly, and there’s nothing at all in attack. There are no coordinated collective actions.
I don’t know what happened to Dynamo. Six months ago, I praised the team, and they confidently became champions. Yes, their performance in Europe was unsuccessful in terms of results, but their play was watchable. But now there is neither result nor play. The players are almost the same, a few new ones, but why there is such hopelessness and toothless play in attack is beyond my understanding. Everything is in one tempo, through arrhythmia, which does not correspond to game situations.
There is no speed. It’s not always necessary to play the ball near your goal. Does the team want to play modern football? But modern football is varied, not just with ball rolling on their own half. It’s fast-paced, which brings the ball closer to the opponent’s box, not their own.
The pressing is slow, they don’t reach. Dynamo players commit many fouls in an uncoordinated manner. Well, you can’t constantly improperly tackle the ball. Football has its laws. And sometimes we see classic wrestling, freestyle, judo, and so on. Football is an art. You can be strong, athletic, but with coordination.
Remembering pressing again, how Dynamo does it. They almost immediately foul. But you need to be smarter. And while the opponent takes a free kick, the fans have time to drink tea. Or take ball possession. They make lateral passes to each other without moving forward, then slowly approach the opponent’s box on half-bent legs within 15 minutes.
I want to say about dribbling separately. Dynamo always had qualified individually strong midfielders. Yakovenko, Rats, Zavarov, Mikhailichenko, Yaremchuk. I’m not even mentioning Bessonov, Bala, Demyanenko, Baltacha, Kuznetsov, who ran across the field all 90 minutes. Who now can at least slightly compare with these performers? No one. There are no such players in Dynamo. No confidence in pace work with the ball. What are trainings for? To showcase the developed or the best in the game. But we don’t see that.
— Maybe current Dynamo players need a more emotional coach, like, for example, Vitalii Kvartsyanyi or Jozsef Szabo?
— Shovkovskyi is a decent and kind man. I’ve never seen his aggression, but I’m sure he’s a strong man and knows everything. Maybe he’s still finding himself in this craft, but I respect him as a footballer and as a person. I don’t want my words about Dynamo to be taken as an offense by the coach. I just recommend paying attention to the points I mentioned above. I can only wish Shovkovskyi many years of work for Dynamo’s benefit, but he probably needs to change his work approaches. A coach must be tough but approach the process harmoniously overall.
When I worked, I was humane in everyday relations with the players, so it seemed. A different thing was training and especially the game. Yes, I was tough, even rough, because these were gladiatorial battles, with football laws that included all the moments I listed. Other sports should be secondary in the footballers' actions, but we often see they dominate. Coordination and coordination should be prioritized for the player.
— As a coach, a specialist, who in Dynamo do you have the weakest claims to?
— Let them not take offense, but I don’t see any talented footballers in Dynamo. At one time Brashko’s development pleasantly surprised me, seemed like any day now... but after his injury, he declined sharply. Then he seemed to get close to peak condition again, was already under the national team, but then fizzled out again and became like everyone else. I don’t know why that is. He didn’t become a leader, couldn’t master individual speed technique that would distinguish him on Dynamo’s transfer lists. His growth has stopped.
One can recall Mikhavko, who, probably, is the only one wanting to stand out with non-standard actions on the field. He commits fouls many times, but these fouls are ambitious, he’s keen on fighting with the opponent. He can grow into an important combat unit for Dynamo and the Ukrainian national team, but Taras still has a lot of work to do.
— Given all the points you’ve mentioned, would a draw in Cyprus be considered a positive result for Dynamo?
— In this case, I think there will be no big criticism. In my opinion, it’s a satisfactory result. Omonia is a strong opponent. They have worthy victories on the international stage. And we shouldn’t forget that football is developing rapidly in Cyprus. Although there were times when such an opponent for Dynamo was like a sweet bun.
— Do you believe that Dynamo can advance to the Conference League playoffs?
— No. They won’t make it. The failure in the championship is undermining the team psychologically. It’s clear that in European competitions there’s a different sense of responsibility, but what we see from Kyiv gives no grounds for optimism. It bothers me that Dynamo constantly tries to bring the ball into the goal, it feels like the players are playing billiards. Why not strike more often from outside the penalty area?
Again, recalling history, I want to say that Dynamo had many great specialists in long shots. Veremeyev, Buryak, Serebrennikov, Yakovenko, Muntyan, Konkov. They spent a lot of time practicing these shots in training. Szabo probably hammered for two hours, both with the left and the right. These players were renowned for their precise shots. This is one of the main functions of midfielders. There are many examples when, in Soviet times, most of the goals were scored by midfielders.
Now there are practically no such performers. I think they get too tired at discos, their legs hurt, and then during the game, they think about not pulling a back one, hence they don’t shoot much at the goal, saving energy for other extracurricular activities. They tense muscles in the wrong places. (Laughs).
— Yes, those were the times…
— In the late 1960s, I was studying in the Kyiv sports boarding school. Understandably, I didn’t miss a single Dynamo match at the Republican Stadium. Back then, matches against Kairat or Pakhtakor drew up to 60,000 spectators. And when the Moscow clubs came, the 100,000-seater stands were full to the brim. The stadium cheered, applauded when the announcer named the Dynamo players. Fans idolized their heroes, all because they couldn’t play poorly. Yes, the team sometimes lost, but the fans were never indifferent, which means a lot.
There was skill that didn’t fall below a certain level. The players could «fool around» in restaurants, but it never affected their play. Simply put, football was 24/7 back then, unfortunately, that’s not the case now.
— Lastly, try to predict the final score of the Omonia vs Dynamo match?
— Specialists talk to journalists not to earn themselves dividends but so that footballers read and make at least some conclusions because these are Ukrainian teams for which we care especially on the international stage. I’m pleased to see our teams' victories in Europe. This indicates that our football is alive.
Shovkovskyi might read this and get offended, but I don’t mean any harm. Let this add character and a fighting spirit to the coach and the team. So, on this optimistic note, concluding my story (smiles), I’ll bet on Dynamo’s victory — 2:1.
Serhii Demianchuk
