The match was valuable experience

– The lads gave it everything, that is for sure, and I cannot fault anyone. As for our game discipline, we have principles for how we should act both in defence and in attack, so I can say that we were careless in the situations in which we conceded goals, and at 3:2 we somehow thought we had already won. As a result, we did not keep things simple and reliable and made individual mistakes. The opponents, who had four players from the first team with experience of playing in the UPL and European competitions, took advantage of this and punished us for our mistakes. We cannot afford to make mistakes like that. For virtually the first 35 minutes, LNZ U21 barely got into our half with the players who finished runners-up in the UPL last season. We made mistakes and the opposition took advantage of them. Overall, I’m pleased with the league as it gives our younger players the opportunity to play against senior players. Imagine a situation where, during a training camp, we are looking for a friendly and call LNZ’s head coach with a proposal. In 99% of cases, they would turn us down because they do not want to play against young players, but here the situation is different – the regulations require it. It is in matches like these that our footballers see that they can dominate and beat such opponents. At the same time, if you relax and become careless, the opposition punishes you immediately. This match was valuable experience, and I hope that we will not make similar mistakes in the future.

I would also like to comment on the call-ups of players to the national teams. Of course, we cannot refuse to release players to the national team, and I understand that, but if we had played, for example, on Saturday or Sunday, Kaliuzhnyi, Bahlai and Balakai could have played for us and then joined the national team after the match. We asked the national team coaches to leave the lads for this match, and the footballers could then have travelled to join the national team at the club’s expense. The club was ready to pay for their travel. I cannot understand when national team coaches ask whether the league match against LNZ U21 is important to us… Of course it is important! The club develops these players, investing time, resources and coaching work to produce performers for the national team. And then we are told that the match against LNZ U21 is not as important as the national team’s friendly matches. That raises the question: is the work of the entire Academy and its coaches not important?

– There is a long break in the championship coming up. What are the plans for this period?
– The footballers will have some days off until the end of the week, and we will resume training on Monday. We may look for some friendlies, and probably some of the players will join the senior team’s training process. We will have two sessions on some days.