Completely new experience
Monday, July 5, 2021
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Artem Bondarenko shared his impression of the friendly 2-1 victory over Turkgucu and spoke about his new experience of playing as a central defender
- Artem, you are one of the few who spent the entire match on the field, besides playing in the new role of a central defender. Did you feel comfortable?
- Firstly, we are happy that we managed to win because we want to win regardless of whether it’s competitive games or friendlies. I tried to fulfil every requirement, but I wouldn’t judge about my performance since there are the coaching staff for that. As for my new role, modern football requires versatile performers. Truly intelligent players must be able to operate at every position.
- Have you previously played at centre-back?
- No, this is a completely new experience for me. I tried to fulfil every requirement of the coaching staff.
- In the first half, you paired up with Mark Mampassi, and in the second one Marlon appeared. Who was more comfortable to interact with?
- They are so similar that one couldn’t even notice the difference. It was comfortable with both Marlon and Mark. No problem.
- It seemed that in the second half the play got livelier. Is it true?
- The opposing team began to put more pressure and open up, and this led to some revival.
- Why were there few passes into the opposing penalty area? Was that part the coach’s plan?
- The coach asks us to play through short passes. All the guys try to follow the requirements and not to deliver the ball into the penalty area pointlessly.
- This is Shakhtar's second friendly in two days. Do you feel tired?
- Fatigue accumulates because the training camp’s halfway mark was long ago. But before the friendlies we had a day off, we managed to recover, so everything’s fine.
- Firstly, we are happy that we managed to win because we want to win regardless of whether it’s competitive games or friendlies. I tried to fulfil every requirement, but I wouldn’t judge about my performance since there are the coaching staff for that. As for my new role, modern football requires versatile performers. Truly intelligent players must be able to operate at every position.
- Have you previously played at centre-back?
- No, this is a completely new experience for me. I tried to fulfil every requirement of the coaching staff.
- In the first half, you paired up with Mark Mampassi, and in the second one Marlon appeared. Who was more comfortable to interact with?
- They are so similar that one couldn’t even notice the difference. It was comfortable with both Marlon and Mark. No problem.
- It seemed that in the second half the play got livelier. Is it true?
- The opposing team began to put more pressure and open up, and this led to some revival.
- Why were there few passes into the opposing penalty area? Was that part the coach’s plan?
- The coach asks us to play through short passes. All the guys try to follow the requirements and not to deliver the ball into the penalty area pointlessly.
- This is Shakhtar's second friendly in two days. Do you feel tired?
- Fatigue accumulates because the training camp’s halfway mark was long ago. But before the friendlies we had a day off, we managed to recover, so everything’s fine.