Igor Jovicevic: We will get even better

30-05-15 23:52:30

Text SizePrintSend

The post-match press conference by the Karpaty acting head coach.

- First of all, I have a very nice impression of this room: I studied for a pro-diploma here. Therefore, I feel good here ... I think I can be proud of the team – they showcased their game! Especially in the second half. Of course, in the first half we got some jitters. It could be felt in the team’s performance. But when I did the analysis following the results of the whole match – it’s just about their mindset, about the psychology of the players, who lack certain experience to control their emotions. Because if you don’t know how, you will never turn in the performance like today’s one in the second half. It gives us inspiration. We have successfully completed this difficult season, in which we formed and built a new team with new combinations of players. We stepped it up with every game. In the first part of the season that all was created, and after the Turkish training camp, the team – starting from the opening match against Metalurh Donetsk, the team were improving up to today’s game: both game quality wise and ball control wise, also in terms of shots on target and all the other parameters. There is the material, the personnel to work with. I would be very happy to continue to coach the lads because I like and respect them as a team.

- How did you manage to set up your charges after trailing 2-0 and losing the first half? As you could either lose or win. What did you do in the dressing room?
- There was a tactical substitution: removing a holding midfielder and adding an offensive player to join Khudobyak. It added aggression and prevented the opponents from building attacking moves. Although I would mention some very interesting information on the analysis of the game vs Shakhtar: the team with such quality players, send long balls most often in Ukrainian football. This encounter reminded me of the match against Zorya in Luhansk, where we also claimed a point in a difficult game. Just as back then, today we’ve had a large number of high passes to the centre forwards in the team, which has been considered to act as the number one throughout the league season. That’s very unusual for us. We have a somewhat different football, plus we have no strikers who can catch the ball just like that. So we have to circle a million times to find the right combination and the particular player in the open space to complete the attack. Much more energy and work is spent on that in training. Believe me, this season has been very productive for us, and that’s noticeable. And we will get even better, because we are a team.

- In the second half the players looked very much wound up. It seems that you said something special in the dressing room ...
- This concerns just us. Let's not talk about it. But I am very grateful to the guys for the fact that they responded to my words, that they respond to the prompts. This suggests that if they did it, they can actually do it. And when you can do and want to do something, that’s a success.

FC Shakhtar