U19. Shakhtar – Atalanta: post-match reaction
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
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The opinions of Shakhtar U19’s coach Fernando Valente and the team player Mykhailo Mudryk about the game vs Atalanta
Fernando Valente, coach:
“The most important thing in this encounter was just to help our players develop and display their performance against a good team. This is also a great opportunity to try out some new ideas, because today we’ve built the game a little bit differently. We can be proud of the guys because they accepted those ideas and tried to demonstrate exactly the style of Shakhtar, which was their major objective. Yes, there were some mistakes, but this is part of the learning process. Besides, many guys are only 16 to 17 years old, which is a good step forward for them, the opportunity to progress. Why did we fail to achieve the result? You know, in order to perform to high standards, you need to have a compact group that grows together with the same ideas. But in this competition, we’ve played against footballers from three teams, so it may be difficult to bring them together, to achieve their cohesion. The football we’d like to display requires time and teamwork. But I’m sure that with the experience gained, next season, Shakhtar will demonstrate a completely different play and will be winning.”
“The most important thing in this encounter was just to help our players develop and display their performance against a good team. This is also a great opportunity to try out some new ideas, because today we’ve built the game a little bit differently. We can be proud of the guys because they accepted those ideas and tried to demonstrate exactly the style of Shakhtar, which was their major objective. Yes, there were some mistakes, but this is part of the learning process. Besides, many guys are only 16 to 17 years old, which is a good step forward for them, the opportunity to progress. Why did we fail to achieve the result? You know, in order to perform to high standards, you need to have a compact group that grows together with the same ideas. But in this competition, we’ve played against footballers from three teams, so it may be difficult to bring them together, to achieve their cohesion. The football we’d like to display requires time and teamwork. But I’m sure that with the experience gained, next season, Shakhtar will demonstrate a completely different play and will be winning.”
The match didn’t decide anything, and we were required to improve our play, and to transfer to the field the things we were practising in training, and to show good football
Mykhailo Mudryk, midfielder:
“The match didn’t decide anything, and we were required to improve our play, and to transfer to the field the things we were practising in training, and to show good football. There is no single thing that we lacked to claim a positive result. There were many chances ... For example, when I went one on one and could have scored one myself, but I fed my teammate instead who was in an even better position, or in the second half we could’ve scored after a free-kick. Piccoli’s goals? At this age, physical attributes can give you an advantage, and he skillfully uses that. In big football, it’s not enough now just to stand out physically, but at this level he can play thanks to that. Talking about the outcome of the tournament, we understand that we performed poorly in terms of the standings. But at the same time, we did a great job and succeeded in improving our play and style.”
“The match didn’t decide anything, and we were required to improve our play, and to transfer to the field the things we were practising in training, and to show good football. There is no single thing that we lacked to claim a positive result. There were many chances ... For example, when I went one on one and could have scored one myself, but I fed my teammate instead who was in an even better position, or in the second half we could’ve scored after a free-kick. Piccoli’s goals? At this age, physical attributes can give you an advantage, and he skillfully uses that. In big football, it’s not enough now just to stand out physically, but at this level he can play thanks to that. Talking about the outcome of the tournament, we understand that we performed poorly in terms of the standings. But at the same time, we did a great job and succeeded in improving our play and style.”