Dynamo Kyiv head coach Ihor Kostiuk answered questions from the media following the Matchday 23 Ukrainian Premier League game against Metalist 1925.
– How much did the absence of Matvii Ponomarenko affect today’s result?
– If we didn’t score today, then it is a loss for us because Matvii is one of our key players. But I believe we played a good-quality match. Our team is still being formed, players are adapting to new demands and it doesn’t always work immediately. We are restructuring, building new connections and seeing how they function. So the fact that players are operating in new combinations affects the quality, especially in the final third.
– In your opinion how well did the team cope after the defeat to Karpaty, considering the disallowed goal? And how did Matvii Ponomarenko handle that situation?
– Today the team played well. The situation with Matvii is already behind us, we have analyzed it and moved on.
– What prompted the tactical changes during the match, particularly the substitutions of Guerrero and Yarmolenko? At times it was unclear who was playing as the central striker as players kept changing positions.
– Shola Ogundana came on as a central striker because the team was playing high up the pitch. But we didn’t use his speed effectively - we tried to play balls in behind but they didn’t reach him because Metalist 1925 players were intercepting them. Once again, I want to emphasize that our team is in a phase of development. We are getting used to each other, to demands, to new connections. We played a good match but we didn’t convert our chances and we conceded from essentially the only moment created against us.
