FC Dynamo Kyiv head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi answered media questions after the game against FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih.
- Congrats to our fans on this important win. We perfectly realized what kind of game it would be. Teams of Yurii Vernydub always play with dedication, sometimes aggressively. We emphasized to our players that we mustn’t lose in these aspects.
I’m glad that players who couldn’t take the field against Hoffenheim, like Andrii Yarmolenko and Vitaliy Buialskyi, managed to help us today.
Considering our schedule, we’ve been applying lineup rotation, so that each player felt as important part of the team.
- Was training in Lublin on the way from Germany to Kyiv a forced step in order not to interrupt the training process?
- Logistics adds a certain charm to our training process. We try to do the best we can. As we were on the way to Hamburg for the matchday 1 game, we realized there’re certain issues and some opportunities we must use. We change, adapt to the situation and improve. In order to become better, you need to constantly improve. That’s why we chose this option. Our flight was delayed for two hours. We planned to lad, have lunch, let players rest for a couple of hours, then have a training session and take a train from Chelm to Kyiv. Unfortunately the flight was delayed, so it was the right decision to plan the flight in the morning, because we flew to Lublin and almost immediately, 40 minutes later, left for training.
I wouldn’t even call it a training session. More like a warm-up. Players who were in the starting lineup the day before did recovery work while the rest got more significant exercise load. After the session we had dinner and went to Kyiv to get ready for today’s game.
We didn’t even analyze the previous match like we usually do as we didn’t have time. Now our internationals join the national team. You need to realize what our schedule’s like.
- Apart from the busy schedule, are there any other reasons why the team didn’t play quite convincingly in the second half?
- I think it’s all about the intensity and logistics issues because of war in Ukraine. We lacked freshness in this game.
- Can you change the home city in euro cups to make logistics easier?
- We can’t do that at this point. By the way, Yarmolenko and Buialskyi had a normal session with the team only yesterday. We couldn’t count on Pikhalionok and Brazhko. Pikhalionok suffered a tendon rupture of the soleus muscle. This means he’s out for at last three weeks. As for Brazhko, not only does he have a rib injury, but he’s also got his adductor muscle hurt. That’s why the two of them won’t join the national team, but Andrii Yarmolenko and Vitalii Buialskyi will.
As of today, we’ve got 8-10 players left, so the youth team players will join us in order to have a training process.
- How’s the adaptation of Guerrero going? Why didn’t they let him take a penalty today?
- I never decide who takes a penalty. Players do. As for adaptation, he’s practically got integrated as a person. He still needs to figure things our regarding the requirements we have. This takes time. But I’m satisfied with his performance. Competition is vital for the progress.
