Dynamo midfielder Vladyslav Kabaiev commented on the home defeat against SC Poltava (1:2) in Matchweek 14 of the Ukrainian league during a UPL.TV broadcast.
– There’s been a change of head coach but Dynamo suffered another defeat. Do you understand how to get out of this crisis?
– We all got into this crisis together – and we will all get out of it together with the new coach. We’ve only had a few training sessions with him so far, we’re still getting used to his requirements. First of all after today’s match I feel negative emotions, of course, because we had many chances that we again failed to convert. And SC Poltava had two or three chances which they used – they even scored from an offside position – and that hits your psychology very hard. Only we ourselves can improve something to achieve positive results in the future if we start winning.
– What had more of an impact today – physical fatigue after European away trips or mental pressure of needing to fix everything? Is it psychologically harder to play against underdogs and avoid underestimating them?
– There was no underestimation because at the moment we’re not in the kind of form or league position where we can view Poltava as an underdog. We haven’t won for a long time either in Ukraine or in European competitions so a victory today would’ve been like a breath of fresh air for us.
Overall it’s a combination of everything: it’s mentally tough and of course physically too, given our schedule – but we’ve been playing like this for several years now. If I say it’s difficult journalists will pick that apart later. Yes, it’s tough but if you score your chances – and we had enough of them – I would probably be standing here in a different mood and talking to you differently.
– How is the new head coach communicating with the team and changing the team’s play? What differences stood out to you?
– He told us that we’re not going to change anything globally right now because there’s not enough time to implement major changes. First and foremost we need to improve our psychological state so we can get out of this crisis and believe in our own strengths, that we are capable of winning. And tactically there were some adjustments, and even my own role changed a bit compared to how it was under Oleksandr Volodymyrovych. So we’ll keep learning and trying to bring this into our game.
