Valeriy Kryventsov: We would beat any opponents today
Saturday, November 26, 2016
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The head coach of Shakhtar U21 team reflects on the game vs Dnipro
- For 90 minutes the team showed fantastic game organization, and the desire to win was so big that today we probably would not lose to anyone. We trained all week long on the grass pitch, while here we had to train indoors on a very narrow synthetic pitch. Because of this, neither we nor Dnipro succeeded on the wings: there was no space we had got used to, with their defenders having enough time to change positions. Knowing the features of this field, we paid a lot of attention to set pieces before the meeting, so they have helped us win today: two goals following corner kicks were scored by our central defenders Sahutkin and Kacharaba, with Arabidze converting a free kick – he outsmarted the goalkeeper and scored a good, important goal. After the score got 2-1, it was much easier for us to play. We managed to quickly score two more goals and claim a well-deserved victory.
- Today we have seen somewhat experimental line-up. What is the reason behind it?
- Our two leading midfielders missed the game: Ihnatenko and Hlushchuk. Pikhalyonok trained for two days only after his illness, but we had nothing to do but field him, even considering that he did not rediscover his fitness, because we just didn’t have any people available for that role. I had to field Masalov on the left wing, who is nominally the central midfielder, move Mihunov into midfield and also field Avagimyan. And we must give the guys their lot – they did their best. In the training process, we pay attention to that: the players need to understand the principles of the game in different roles, for them to be able to cover some space in case of necessity. Besides, we got three players from the U19 team. Maksym Chekh and Viktor Korniyenko have debuted today, and I congratulate them on the occasion. They looked pretty good. We also planned to field Dmytro Topalov, but the match developed in such a way that we failed to do so. However, he will still get another chance to prove himself.
- You have two more games to play before the winter break. Are the team ready for the closing attempt?
- We are going through a weekly cycle of preparation for our meetings, so we are currently thinking about playing Stal rather than Dynamo. We remember the first leg, when we won 3-0, but that victory was really difficult for us to claim. So we prepare the guys for Stal, and we will think about Dynamo later. We have two games left, and we will try to win them to go on vacation in a good mood.
- Today we have seen somewhat experimental line-up. What is the reason behind it?
- Our two leading midfielders missed the game: Ihnatenko and Hlushchuk. Pikhalyonok trained for two days only after his illness, but we had nothing to do but field him, even considering that he did not rediscover his fitness, because we just didn’t have any people available for that role. I had to field Masalov on the left wing, who is nominally the central midfielder, move Mihunov into midfield and also field Avagimyan. And we must give the guys their lot – they did their best. In the training process, we pay attention to that: the players need to understand the principles of the game in different roles, for them to be able to cover some space in case of necessity. Besides, we got three players from the U19 team. Maksym Chekh and Viktor Korniyenko have debuted today, and I congratulate them on the occasion. They looked pretty good. We also planned to field Dmytro Topalov, but the match developed in such a way that we failed to do so. However, he will still get another chance to prove himself.
- You have two more games to play before the winter break. Are the team ready for the closing attempt?
- We are going through a weekly cycle of preparation for our meetings, so we are currently thinking about playing Stal rather than Dynamo. We remember the first leg, when we won 3-0, but that victory was really difficult for us to claim. So we prepare the guys for Stal, and we will think about Dynamo later. We have two games left, and we will try to win them to go on vacation in a good mood.