- They speak a lot about players’ vacation. When do you have time for rest?
- This year I had 10 days for rest. There’s a lot to take care about to make players feel comfortable. I’m talking about flights, training camps etc.
- You must be aware of Dynamo performers’ conditions. What are your expectations of the new football year?
- We’ve already had club meeting. First of all I wished players Happy New Year. Anyway we also talked about 2013. We realize it was a failure, so we want to apologize to our supporters for not answering their expectations.
Andriy Yarmolenko was right saying that our team must always struggle for Premiership and have ambitious aims on European arena. We are to move towards winning the trophy step by step. First of all we are to outplay Valencia CF. After that we’ll set new goals. Football is unpredictable. If players do their best on the pitch supporters will applaud.
- What positive moments can you emphasize speaking about the year 2013?
- We’ve discussed that with Oleh Blokhin. It’s very important that we’ve managed to create a unified team. Players stand one for all and all for one. Last summer five foreign performers joined our club. Each of them has his own ambitions and way of life. Adaptation is a difficult process.
It also should be mentioned that our players suffered injuries rather often. Think, for instance, of Denys Harmash and Yevhen Selin. I consider Harmash to be one of Dynamo key performers. He can unify the team, just like Yarmolenko or Bezus. Our failures mean that we have what to work on. Today we have a very promising team, which can achieve significant success. First matches of the second part of current season will show whether we are on the right path.
- This year Dynamo will have two training camps in Spain again. Has Iberian Peninsula become integral part of the White-Blues preparation or maybe there were other variants? Valeriy Lobanovskyi used to take the team to Germany…
- Things change. I guess there were no such training facilities when Valeriy Lobanovskyi was in charge of our team. Nowadays players can have two training camps in good conditions. We must be in step with the times. Many teams work on same pitches as we do. For example Serhiy Rebrov has gone for stints to Borussia Dortmund camp. At the moment they are also training in Spain.
- Valencia CF are rather good team. What are Dynamo aims in the Europa League?
- First fixtures of the new year will be heart-pounding. We must get ready for outplaying Valencia. Players know about this task. If that happens we’ll think about new goals. Valencia are really good team despite all difficulties they are experiencing. We must respect them. Win against such opponent is worth a lot.
* photos by V. Rasner
