Unforgettable season
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
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Shakhtar manager Luis Castro gave a big press conference for the Portuguese media
On June 23, the Ukrainian Champions’ coach was answering questions in a conference mode in Zoom for an hour. The communication involved the reporters representing A Bola, RTP, Record, Sport TV, Lusa, O Jogo, Canal 11, Correio ao mundo and Noticias ao minuto. We bring you the first part of the conference.
- How pleasant is winning the title in such difficult times for humanity? (O Jogo)
- Yes, indeed, there were some very difficult moments during this year. For the first time in my life, I experienced such an atypical season. Most often, they are basically the same, with the same dates, with nothing particularly changing. While now, it’s completely different. The first feeling that overwhelmed us was that we were somewhat selfish. Sometimes we forget that the most important thing is not us, but humanity in general, everything that is happening in the world at the moment. And in those moments when they said that the championship might not continue, we had a 13-point lead. I waited so many years to become a champion, and then, when I was close to that, I couldn’t? All that, of course, took hold of us, and we did not think quite rationally. Now I feel like a mountain has been lifted off my shoulders. We have become the champions. Most likely, the Championship will end, with us participating in all games until the end. I’ve got a very pleasant feeling of accomplishment, based on the expectations and ambitions that I set for myself at certain points in my life. The joy was just great. When we, coaches, win, it’s about the same as when the father gives something as a gift to the child. The father is more happy that he is giving it than the son who accepts the gift. I felt that kind of joy for everyone around me. And, of course, previously, Shakhtar saw a huge number of fans at the stadium. To differ from Donetsk where the Donbass Arena attendance averaged 40 thousand, we are away from home now, with just four to five thousand fans present at each match. Many fans suffer from the fact that they cannot be present at our matches. The club has left the city, but we can give them some joy at least from afar, and this is just a fantastic feeling. I am sure that we all form a very strong and well-knit family, despite the fact that we are currently quite far from each other. The current situation in the world does not allow us to be together.
- How did Shakhtar manage to win the title five rounds away from the league season end? The Portuguese clubs have been experiencing some difficulties after quarantine, the outcome of the competition is not clear yet, while in Ukraine the winners are already known. (RTP)
- I think that of the four most important factors, the psychological one has suffered the most. Remember, you talked a lot about the great risk of injuries? They always talked more about the physical component, but I always talked about the psychological component. Instability, lack of knowledge and misunderstanding gives a certain uncertainty. Will we have a plane or not? Will we go on foot or by car? The similar thing happens in football. When will the Championship resume? When will we play? When will we work together again? All this was a terrible experience. I could not fly to Portugal, the Brazilians couldn’t go to Brazil. Everyone was sitting at home and did not understand when to start training. Then everything changed for individual sessions, then the same on the pitch - two players, four players ... Later, we already started working as a group. Thinking over how we would play, with masks on or without? Will we use one bus or two? They disinfected footballs, we couldn’t greet each other normally, we should have been separated by empty chairs at the stadium. All this is a whole new world. Therefore, mentally, our concentration was not one hundred percent - the psychological component suffered a little. There is another point. The big-name clubs are used to the fact that there are 30 to 40 thousand fans at the stadium. They miss that. And smaller clubs are already accustomed to the fact that there are not so many people at the stadium. A thousand or no one - the difference is not so great. And I am by no means saying that a thousand fans at the stadium means nothing, no, don’t confuse those things. In Portugal, they often like to interpret the words differently: “Ah, he already underestimates the thousand people that came!” No way. Even one person is important. So it happens in life. I often hear: "Only one person has died." No, not “only one person died” - a person died! Back to the affected psychological component: all this can affect the course and outcome of the game. Lack of support could affect the giants. What is the point of playing without an audience? This is not quite normal, and quality may drop. Yesterday, I told my friend that the stronger team would win. If two teams go neck-and-neck, then this will last until the very end.
- Without touching the topic of pandemic and the competition break, you have managed to win your first Premier League title. How would you describe your first season in a different country, away from your native Portugal? (Canal 11)
- Not typical and unforgettable. Atypical because we have already held three training camps this season, still facing the fourth one before the Europa League match. Unforgettable because at the age of 58, for the first time in my career I’ve won a Premier League title. Another reason - because it was done in this kind of context. Champions without any audience.
- Shakhtar were topping the UPL from the very beginning to the end. Were there any moments during the season when you doubted that you would become champions? (Lusa)
- Life has already brought me so many strange matches and stories that I am not sure of anything in advance. Sometimes, the assistants even laughed at me. Our first training session ended as part of a weekly cycle, and they said: “Oh, sorry, we didn’t manage to increase the gap between us and the second-spot side!” I always tell my players: “The advantage that we have must be kept or increased. We should by no means lose our lead, because in this case we lose confidence and give it to other teams. Even when we had a nine-point lead, I always repeated that if we lost, there would be six points. And that’s not so bad, but the problem is that you stop feeling confident, while the opponents, on the contrary, are gaining this confidence. This dynamic is present in football, and it made me worry. I often gave the players an example of what had happened in Portugal: the leaders had an advantage of eight points, and suddenly everything turned in the opposite direction and something unexpected happened. And it happens all over the world. Therefore, I always considered with my players the next game as an opportunity to extend the lead or at least to keep it. I was never sure of anything until the very last match. And now, yes, I'm sure that we are the champions!
- You said that the most memorable matches you had in the Champions League. For example, against Atalanta. And what were the biggest difficulties in the Championship of Ukraine? (Record)
- The difficulties of the title contenders are well known. We play against the teams who just park the bus and operate compactly. Often there use two lines of 6+4, not even putting an attacker in front. Sometimes it is 5+5, sometimes it’s 5-4-1. To counter this and rip open the opposing defence, you need to have very qualified players. In the opponents’ last line of defence, it’s very important to play combinational football and make quick decisions. We also need to have a balance. We often tell our guys about this balance in the defensive third, but they see that there are no opponents there. Then they may think that this balance does not need to be kept. Therefore, we have to control the zones, and not directly the opponents. This is the biggest difficulty of the Championship - how they play against us. You may well dominate the match throughout, everything seems to be in your favour, but then follows a blistering counterattack of the opponents and you feel less confident. Those who look at the standings will think it was easy. But who put our team in this position? Those are the players. Nobody gave us anything. Thanks to our work, we ourselves managed to claim the top spot and this advantage. And there is one more thing that was simply decisive: we are a great team. My players are part of a great team. Nine of our footballers play for the national team of Ukraine, plus several guys are in Brazil’s Olympic team. And Ukraine made it past Portugal not just for no reason - they really proved to be the top-quality side in the qualifying stages of Euro. Seven players in their starting lineup represent Shakhtar. Our team ties with Manchester City, with Dinamo in Zagreb, they beat Atalanta in Italy, they draw with Benfica. We didn’t suffer a single away defeat in European competitions. We can say for sure that this is the team who prove and justify their position. Not because the Ukrainian league is weak. We have good football players. It justifies everything that happens to us. Dynamo also have excellent players, they have eight Ukraine players. But they got off to a poor start, which got fatal. So for us, the difficulty was a possible defensive imbalance at the time of much attacking work. We managed to handle that. Had we been inattentive, this would’ve become fatal for us, and in some situations it did happen so.
- It was reported about the interest of Sporting in Filipe Celikkaya. Can you confirm this information? (A Bola)
- Yes, this is true, we shouldn’t hide it. Sporting is really interested in him. I perfectly understand the ambitions of each of my assistants, and they know that they can show them. I want to give Filipe the freedom to continue his journey as a coach. There’s even nothing to discuss in this case: we need to open our doors, and he will go his own way. Filipe knows that I don’t like to change elements in the coaching staff at all. I like stability. But I also know that each of us follows their goals in life, and we need to give room for that. I wouldn’t change anything on my initiative. I want to say that Filipe has been with me since we were at Chaves. After that, we worked at Vitoria de Guimaraes, and now we are at Shakhtar. All three years he was a very effective working element of our coaching staff and he always correctly performed his duties. Also, this person has values. This is exactly what I am always looking for: I prefer to surround myself with people who have values. He will be replaced by another professional, his colleague. You may ask who? No, I’m not going to say it now, but he will come from Portugal. I hope he will also be very successful with us. And I hope that Filipe will also be very successful at the club of this scale, the Portuguese giants.
- What will be the next step in your career? Will you stay at Shakhtar or do you have any other thoughts? In Portugal, your name is linked to Benfica. (A Bola)
- I have another year of contract with Shakhtar, and I am very happy at this club. I had several goals in my career that I have already fulfilled here. One personal goal is to play in the Champions League, because I already played in the Europa League with Porto. Taking part in a competition like the Champions League is just fantastic! It’s great that we became the champions, because next season, I hope we will be in the second pot at the group stage draw. And, in fact, becoming the champions was also my goal. Shakhtar has already given me a lot. In my life I will always be grateful to this club, and I would never have turned my back on it because of financial or any other issues after the things we have done for each other. I really respect Shakhtar. I don’t want to say now that I’ll fulfill the two years of the contract for one hundred percent because we all know what football is like. One poor result, another one, and after the third we leave, even if we don’t want it. That;s how I live, these are my life rules. Answering your question, my only concern is Shakhtar Donetsk. Now, we need to prepare for the Europa League and the return leg against Wolfsburg, plus we have another five league games. And we are gradually starting to look into the next season - it will be very difficult. We don’t know when it kicks off, plus, there is also the Champions League that kicks off in October, and the Euro 2021 with Ukraine participating in it. A number of factors make us focus our attention on planning to the max.
- How pleasant is winning the title in such difficult times for humanity? (O Jogo)
- Yes, indeed, there were some very difficult moments during this year. For the first time in my life, I experienced such an atypical season. Most often, they are basically the same, with the same dates, with nothing particularly changing. While now, it’s completely different. The first feeling that overwhelmed us was that we were somewhat selfish. Sometimes we forget that the most important thing is not us, but humanity in general, everything that is happening in the world at the moment. And in those moments when they said that the championship might not continue, we had a 13-point lead. I waited so many years to become a champion, and then, when I was close to that, I couldn’t? All that, of course, took hold of us, and we did not think quite rationally. Now I feel like a mountain has been lifted off my shoulders. We have become the champions. Most likely, the Championship will end, with us participating in all games until the end. I’ve got a very pleasant feeling of accomplishment, based on the expectations and ambitions that I set for myself at certain points in my life. The joy was just great. When we, coaches, win, it’s about the same as when the father gives something as a gift to the child. The father is more happy that he is giving it than the son who accepts the gift. I felt that kind of joy for everyone around me. And, of course, previously, Shakhtar saw a huge number of fans at the stadium. To differ from Donetsk where the Donbass Arena attendance averaged 40 thousand, we are away from home now, with just four to five thousand fans present at each match. Many fans suffer from the fact that they cannot be present at our matches. The club has left the city, but we can give them some joy at least from afar, and this is just a fantastic feeling. I am sure that we all form a very strong and well-knit family, despite the fact that we are currently quite far from each other. The current situation in the world does not allow us to be together.
- How did Shakhtar manage to win the title five rounds away from the league season end? The Portuguese clubs have been experiencing some difficulties after quarantine, the outcome of the competition is not clear yet, while in Ukraine the winners are already known. (RTP)
- I think that of the four most important factors, the psychological one has suffered the most. Remember, you talked a lot about the great risk of injuries? They always talked more about the physical component, but I always talked about the psychological component. Instability, lack of knowledge and misunderstanding gives a certain uncertainty. Will we have a plane or not? Will we go on foot or by car? The similar thing happens in football. When will the Championship resume? When will we play? When will we work together again? All this was a terrible experience. I could not fly to Portugal, the Brazilians couldn’t go to Brazil. Everyone was sitting at home and did not understand when to start training. Then everything changed for individual sessions, then the same on the pitch - two players, four players ... Later, we already started working as a group. Thinking over how we would play, with masks on or without? Will we use one bus or two? They disinfected footballs, we couldn’t greet each other normally, we should have been separated by empty chairs at the stadium. All this is a whole new world. Therefore, mentally, our concentration was not one hundred percent - the psychological component suffered a little. There is another point. The big-name clubs are used to the fact that there are 30 to 40 thousand fans at the stadium. They miss that. And smaller clubs are already accustomed to the fact that there are not so many people at the stadium. A thousand or no one - the difference is not so great. And I am by no means saying that a thousand fans at the stadium means nothing, no, don’t confuse those things. In Portugal, they often like to interpret the words differently: “Ah, he already underestimates the thousand people that came!” No way. Even one person is important. So it happens in life. I often hear: "Only one person has died." No, not “only one person died” - a person died! Back to the affected psychological component: all this can affect the course and outcome of the game. Lack of support could affect the giants. What is the point of playing without an audience? This is not quite normal, and quality may drop. Yesterday, I told my friend that the stronger team would win. If two teams go neck-and-neck, then this will last until the very end.
- Without touching the topic of pandemic and the competition break, you have managed to win your first Premier League title. How would you describe your first season in a different country, away from your native Portugal? (Canal 11)
- Not typical and unforgettable. Atypical because we have already held three training camps this season, still facing the fourth one before the Europa League match. Unforgettable because at the age of 58, for the first time in my career I’ve won a Premier League title. Another reason - because it was done in this kind of context. Champions without any audience.
- Shakhtar were topping the UPL from the very beginning to the end. Were there any moments during the season when you doubted that you would become champions? (Lusa)
- Life has already brought me so many strange matches and stories that I am not sure of anything in advance. Sometimes, the assistants even laughed at me. Our first training session ended as part of a weekly cycle, and they said: “Oh, sorry, we didn’t manage to increase the gap between us and the second-spot side!” I always tell my players: “The advantage that we have must be kept or increased. We should by no means lose our lead, because in this case we lose confidence and give it to other teams. Even when we had a nine-point lead, I always repeated that if we lost, there would be six points. And that’s not so bad, but the problem is that you stop feeling confident, while the opponents, on the contrary, are gaining this confidence. This dynamic is present in football, and it made me worry. I often gave the players an example of what had happened in Portugal: the leaders had an advantage of eight points, and suddenly everything turned in the opposite direction and something unexpected happened. And it happens all over the world. Therefore, I always considered with my players the next game as an opportunity to extend the lead or at least to keep it. I was never sure of anything until the very last match. And now, yes, I'm sure that we are the champions!
- You said that the most memorable matches you had in the Champions League. For example, against Atalanta. And what were the biggest difficulties in the Championship of Ukraine? (Record)
- The difficulties of the title contenders are well known. We play against the teams who just park the bus and operate compactly. Often there use two lines of 6+4, not even putting an attacker in front. Sometimes it is 5+5, sometimes it’s 5-4-1. To counter this and rip open the opposing defence, you need to have very qualified players. In the opponents’ last line of defence, it’s very important to play combinational football and make quick decisions. We also need to have a balance. We often tell our guys about this balance in the defensive third, but they see that there are no opponents there. Then they may think that this balance does not need to be kept. Therefore, we have to control the zones, and not directly the opponents. This is the biggest difficulty of the Championship - how they play against us. You may well dominate the match throughout, everything seems to be in your favour, but then follows a blistering counterattack of the opponents and you feel less confident. Those who look at the standings will think it was easy. But who put our team in this position? Those are the players. Nobody gave us anything. Thanks to our work, we ourselves managed to claim the top spot and this advantage. And there is one more thing that was simply decisive: we are a great team. My players are part of a great team. Nine of our footballers play for the national team of Ukraine, plus several guys are in Brazil’s Olympic team. And Ukraine made it past Portugal not just for no reason - they really proved to be the top-quality side in the qualifying stages of Euro. Seven players in their starting lineup represent Shakhtar. Our team ties with Manchester City, with Dinamo in Zagreb, they beat Atalanta in Italy, they draw with Benfica. We didn’t suffer a single away defeat in European competitions. We can say for sure that this is the team who prove and justify their position. Not because the Ukrainian league is weak. We have good football players. It justifies everything that happens to us. Dynamo also have excellent players, they have eight Ukraine players. But they got off to a poor start, which got fatal. So for us, the difficulty was a possible defensive imbalance at the time of much attacking work. We managed to handle that. Had we been inattentive, this would’ve become fatal for us, and in some situations it did happen so.
- It was reported about the interest of Sporting in Filipe Celikkaya. Can you confirm this information? (A Bola)
- Yes, this is true, we shouldn’t hide it. Sporting is really interested in him. I perfectly understand the ambitions of each of my assistants, and they know that they can show them. I want to give Filipe the freedom to continue his journey as a coach. There’s even nothing to discuss in this case: we need to open our doors, and he will go his own way. Filipe knows that I don’t like to change elements in the coaching staff at all. I like stability. But I also know that each of us follows their goals in life, and we need to give room for that. I wouldn’t change anything on my initiative. I want to say that Filipe has been with me since we were at Chaves. After that, we worked at Vitoria de Guimaraes, and now we are at Shakhtar. All three years he was a very effective working element of our coaching staff and he always correctly performed his duties. Also, this person has values. This is exactly what I am always looking for: I prefer to surround myself with people who have values. He will be replaced by another professional, his colleague. You may ask who? No, I’m not going to say it now, but he will come from Portugal. I hope he will also be very successful with us. And I hope that Filipe will also be very successful at the club of this scale, the Portuguese giants.
- What will be the next step in your career? Will you stay at Shakhtar or do you have any other thoughts? In Portugal, your name is linked to Benfica. (A Bola)
- I have another year of contract with Shakhtar, and I am very happy at this club. I had several goals in my career that I have already fulfilled here. One personal goal is to play in the Champions League, because I already played in the Europa League with Porto. Taking part in a competition like the Champions League is just fantastic! It’s great that we became the champions, because next season, I hope we will be in the second pot at the group stage draw. And, in fact, becoming the champions was also my goal. Shakhtar has already given me a lot. In my life I will always be grateful to this club, and I would never have turned my back on it because of financial or any other issues after the things we have done for each other. I really respect Shakhtar. I don’t want to say now that I’ll fulfill the two years of the contract for one hundred percent because we all know what football is like. One poor result, another one, and after the third we leave, even if we don’t want it. That;s how I live, these are my life rules. Answering your question, my only concern is Shakhtar Donetsk. Now, we need to prepare for the Europa League and the return leg against Wolfsburg, plus we have another five league games. And we are gradually starting to look into the next season - it will be very difficult. We don’t know when it kicks off, plus, there is also the Champions League that kicks off in October, and the Euro 2021 with Ukraine participating in it. A number of factors make us focus our attention on planning to the max.
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