It seems to me, gentlemen, that it was a comedy. Why does someone named Miroshi play on the left flank of defense? Why hasn’t Sikan changed for so long? Why was there no place on the field for Shakhtar’s best players at the start of the UPL – Kryskiv and Bondarenko? What was van Leeuwen trying to play?
I had at least a dozen similar “whys” after the final whistle of the Shakhtar – Porto match played in Hamburg. To be honest, I thought that Shakhtar’s head coach would shed light on my tricky and caustic barbs at the post-match press conference, but after listening to van Leeuwen, there were even more questions.
In addition, I have only become convinced that the current head coach of the Pitmen is inferior to his predecessor in terms of emotions, drive, and charisma. Moreover, it is inferior not only in the emotional component. Jovicevich, for all his carelessness, found the strength and courage to admit his mistakes and take the blame upon himself. Van Leeuwen cannot yet boast of such qualities.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Patrick van Leeuwen
“It was a shame”, “there is a difference in quality” – that’s, in fact, all that the Dutch coach could squeeze out of himself after the match was lost to smithereens. A match after which we should all definitely say “thank you” to our champion for not losing with a much more striking difference in the score.
I understand perfectly why the Orange-and-Blacks’ coaching staff was reshuffled in the summer off-season. I can guess why Jovicevich did not please Akhmetov. And how did the former head coach of Zorya bribe the president of the Pitmen?
In the person of the ex-head of their academy, Shakhtar was looking for consistency, looking for consistency, class, in the end. All this really was not in Jovicevich’s coaching dossier.
However, having received the coveted classic in the person of van Leeuwen, Shakhtar completely lost what the Croatian coach gave the team last season. Igor charged, motivated, set up. While Patrick is just a spy. An antique statue that is almost impossible to unbalance. And which no one will plant, because it is a monument!
This is probably an excellent quality for a head coach. But in this particular case it is flawed.
***
Now, in this context, I would like to say a few words about the latest transfer campaign of the current champion of Ukraine.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine
If last season the Donetsk club was clearly taken by surprise (in principle, all our clubs, due to well-known reasons, found themselves in extreme conditions), and therefore focused on quantity, acquiring, first of all, Ukrainian football players, now how can we characterize the selection Shakhtar vector, I don’t even know.
First of all, young, green, untested players were bought. Legionnaires. I won’t say it’s of questionable quality. I will say this: for the future. And not the closest one.
But in the end, it turned out that many of these fledgling chicks are forced to plug holes in the starting lineup. And if at the UPL level such experiments go, if not with a bang, then quite painlessly due to the demonstrative weakness of opponents, then at the very first serious opponent, Shakhtar, using all the same experiments, got burned.
And in this case, I can’t help but ask: what, in the summer there were no problems in the center of defense, on the left flank of defense, in the center of attack? I will answer myself: yes, it was obvious, of course, because in the club there are people who know their job in the appropriate positions.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine
But why then is an elderly center back, whose priority seemed to be the Indonesian championship, being bought as a saving straw for the center of defense? Why didn’t they buy out Mikhailichenko’s contract? What, is Azarov better or, God forgive me, Miroshi? Why haven’t they found a quality forward? Yes, even Rusina?
It’s unlikely that anyone from the club can clearly answer these questions for me. On the other hand, I can safely judge the quality of the recruits by the form of the Tanzanian (!) no-name, who, it turns out, is not a defender at all, but an attacking midfielder. It seems to me that this Novatus Dismas will become such a household name. Lightning rod. Shakhtar’s ritual sacrifice, made to the football gods for who knows why.
Excuse me, but in my subjective opinion, the current Shakhtar with the “right” coach still looks much more prosaic, shallower and less interesting than the Shakhtar of the “wrong” Jovicevich.
From that Shakhtar I had every right to expect not only a trick, but also a feat. And from this Shakhtar I initially expect only a statement.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine
I state: Shakhtar will fight with Antwerp for third place in the group. Best case scenario.
Now the Donetsk team is not so “shabby” as to demand the impossible from it.
Although it’s difficult to demand the possible from her now.
