Andriy Shevchenko: We spent more time on intense physical training, tactics of playing in defense

06.06.2021 17:38

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The head coach of the national team of Ukraine Andriy Shevchenko held a press conference dedicated to tomorrow's friendly match with the team of Cyprus.

— Which in and you can underбиare you the results of the preparatory collection?

- All the planned work went as we wanted. Tomorrow will be a control game, which we complete the collection. Then we go to Romania and there we will prepare directly for the first match for the Euro.

- Now the national team of Ukraine depends on its leaders?

- Dependence on strong players and leaders will be in any team. This is a normal process. We try to rotate, in friendly matches we give the opportunity to show ourselves to others. We are constantly looking for, inviting young people. This is all done in order to have competition. Even our leaders should not feel at ease. If there is no competition, there will be no growth.

- How different is the excitement before the European Championship for Shevchenko-player and Shevchenko-coach?

- The players and the coach have the same excitement. There is a responsibility first of all to the Ukrainian fans. When I was a player, she was always with me. Now it's ready. The team is doing everything to successfully perform at the Euros. The guys trained well, there were no excesses. The main thing is to look back after all the work done and go to the European Championships with a calm soul. I think we did our best during the preparation. You need to prepare for official matches and play.

- Do you study your opponents by slicing or do you watch their fights in full?

- We prepare for each match differently. During the collection, various systems were considered, working on the overall structure. Most of it was dedicated to our game and our actions on the football field. Plus we have friendly meetings, which we also take seriously. We study the opponent, make an analysis. We prepare for each match separately. We disassemble, see how we better play, what actions to do. 

- How close will tomorrow's lineup be to the main one at Euro 2020?

- Tomorrow there will be an experimental composition. We try to rotate, give time to those who played less. We have a number of players who have been injured. Let's look at their condition. If they are ready, we will let them play as well. Even if this is the last match before the departure, it is not a supertest where we have to check everyone. Our task is to prepare as many people as possible for the European Championship.

- The head coach of the Northern Ireland national team said that the game of our team did not come as a surprise to him. Can a recognizable style become a problem at the Euro?

- It's even good. If there were no surprises, probably the opponents were waiting for us to play. Over the last five years, we have a certain style, structure. I do not see a problem in this. I'm even impressed that we have a certain pattern that sets us apart from other teams.

- You have repeatedly talked about the implementation. Don't you see problems in psychology? Haven't you thought about taking a psychologist to the national team?

- By no means. It's not psychology, it's more about quality. An extra psychologist in the team is definitely not needed.

- How did you encourage Oleksandr Zinchenko?

- He is fine, he is motivated.

- How much time do you spend on training standard positions?

- Not so much. According to our plans, we will focus on standards more in Romania. These two weeks we spent more time with intense physical training, tactics of the game in defense. There is never enough time for a coach. It is impossible to contain and distribute everything - something must be sacrificed. We will carefully disassemble and prepare the standard provisions already in Romania. I think this is one of the important components in football.

- Do players who did not get into the application for Euro 2020 support their form just in case?

- I already said that Sable had a problem. Now everything is fine with him, he is training. I decided to leave in the location of the team performers who did not get to the application. They train with us, they are candidates, they will join the team at any moment under unforeseen circumstances. In addition to injuries, there is also COVID-19. We see that teams, in addition to damage, have situations with the virus. We have to be careful in such conditions. Tsygankov is all right, as is Sobol. Everyone is working today. Some of the guys will practice individually, because not everyone will be able to take part in joint training.