FC Dynamo Kyiv head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi answered media questions after the win against FC Polissia Zhytomyr.
- Congrats to our supporters. We knew our opponent had a week to get ready while we played on the third day after the previous match. We had a tough game on Thursday playing outnumbered for about 75 minutes. We didn’t have a chance to recover properly as we came back to Kyiv yesterday.
That’s why we were getting the team ready for a tough game. Discipline was key. Late in the match we felt we were exhausted.
- What do you think of your center backs’ performance?
- I’ll always be defending my players even when I’m not satisfied. They need to be calmer, more reliable, make better decisions.
- Your team scored twice in the first half, but then had some creativeness issues even though visitors were outnumbered. Do you have difficulties playing the upper profile?
- We have difficulties with recovery due to the tight schedule and logistics.
- What do you think of the episode when Popov was booked?
- Football is a contact game, but players need to be careful. Probably the thing is that he’s missed a lot due to injury, just like Yarmolenko. He always says “I’m fine”, but I notices he was tired. That’s why we had to play three defenders with Dubinchak acting higher and Karavayev in the right wing alongside Voloshyn.
Of course when there’s such a fatigues we can’t match our expectations. Under this circumstances it’s all about what decisions players make, how they perform under pressure and adrenalin. I always emphasize how important proper decisions are, but we need to be fresh to make those. Just check how often we play every three or four days. Maybe it’s okay when logistics is normal, but when you spend 18-20 hours on the road… That’s why we change lineup frequently. Sometimes I substitute players so that they were more fresh in the following game.
- In such a case, why do Dynamo play euro cups in Germany? Wouldn’t it be simpler to play in Poland or Romania?
- Frankly speaking I wasn’t in charge of that. Logistics is tough these days, that’s for sure.
