Valeriy Rudakov: I would bring Ordets into the first team

27-12-12 12:59:00

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One of the best defenders in the history of Shakhtar and the club's Academy coach assessed the Pitmen’s performance in the 2012 season’s first half defensively.

- Valeriy Viktorovich, in 18 league games our team has conceded just nine goals. What does this mean?
- I believe that the goalkeeper and the defence line have played enough to understand each other well. Hence the result. You can’t choose your opponents, they are what they are. They try to create chances and score anyway. And it’s important for the defence in such situation to maintain concentration to not miss an attacking move, a counterattack and to not concede a goal – they need to be able to do that as well. And I think that in this respect we have progressed.

- What do you make of the defensive players’ performance individually?
- Srna is stable, he’s beyond competition in his position. As for the central defenders, Kucher has improved significantly, although he earns unnecessary fouls at times. Rakitskiy reaches a stable level. At left back we have Shevchuk and Rat. Rat enjoys more confidence from the head coach, but when possible, Lucescu fields Vyachelav as well. Razvan is, of course, more experienced in terms of international matches. I would say that in general our defence performs at a good level, but we still have some issues.

- Who from the reserves could in the near future strengthen the defensive line?
- Dmytro Chygrynskiy can not overcome his injury problems and regain his best form. He lacks confidence, even when playing he is excited and worried. But he could significantly strengthen Shakhtar’s defence. He used to be my pupil, I am always worried about him, I want him to reach a stable level. The same lack of confidence is characteristic of Krivtsov. He is great, he has it all, but gets lost and doesn’t really feel confident in one-on-ones. It shows. We can try to bring our alumnus Ivan Ordets into the first team. They watched him dring the trials, I've seen some first-team games with his participation. He makes minor errors, but we should keep in mind that the requirements in the reserve team are different from those of the first team. He, as to me, should be allowed to practice with the team, to be tried in combination with other defenders. Ivan is the kind of man who can fight for his place and win it. There are enough lads to choose from, but they should give a chance to all of these boys.

- And if we speak about the flanks rather than the central zone?
- The main candidate here is Maksym Zhychykov. He has long been in the U-21 team, he took part in the training camps with the first team. Maybe even Mykhailo Pysko: his left foot is great, his joining the arracks can be dangerous. But he also needs to gain more experience.

- What, according to you, our defence should master in the nearest future?
- It's positional play and joint action which would leave less room for the opponent to orchestrate penetrating attacking moves and create chances. The defenders are not that fast, and they could solve a lot of problems in defence through the correct positioning.
 
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