We already all that we could say about Guus, if you count the words spoken at all. Now comes the time of particulars - in a few days we will find out, for example, whom he will invite to the first national team gathering. We will find out if there are surprises on this list. Then a few more days will pass - and the team will play the first match. It will be a trial, comradely, and its main result, of course, will not be the score, but what kind of impulse will give the first meeting of the new coach with the team that they will understand about each other. That is, we will see the real result in a couple of weeks, when the first match of the qualifying round will take place. And right away with Croatia, which is now seen as almost our main rival - England is seen above initially.
And in anticipation of the events, let's summarize. Our expectations, all that was said about Guus. Let's think about what we should expect from him. Not in the long run - the abstract progress of the team, access to Europe, this is all clear, it is necessary, but here's the catch: we still won’t know about whether we went to Europe. And all this year it is necessary to look and evaluate, it will be necessary to speak - not to be silent. Personally, I decided to write this note about Guus, so that I, the journalist, would not have a way back if my own expectations would turn out to be wrong. I will have this material in order to remind you of something: I said this, and not another. You will have this material, in which case, ask how this is consistent with possible clarifications of positions. In general, a likeness of grandmothers, friends; welcome speeches said, work begins!
1. Hiddink did not come to save us. To save, not a world-class coach is needed - Modji is needed. A world-class trainer is needed when you need to reach your potential. It is necessary to correctly implement what is already in national football. That is, this is actually an optimistic step: those who invited Hiddink really believe that the real place of Russian football is higher than what it currently occupies. I do not belong to this venerable host, but my point of view completely coincides with this: the Russian team in the last four years has only occasionally shown what it really is capable of. A must show regularly.
2. Hiddink may well be wrong. He is not sinless; his career was great, but there were failures in it. By the way, after the first match of his team with Latvia, we at the Football Club are preparing just such material: we will turn to Hiddink’s failure, tell us what caused it and how it happened.
Down with the idealization. We should practically look at things. Like in Crimea Island, remember? On the eve of the merger with the Soviet Union, the party in favor of this merger tells the whole truth about the most unsightly sides of Soviet life.
We hope for a completely different ending than the one that took place in the namesake Aksenov’s novel, and we believe in it. But now we consider it our duty to start a conversation about Hiddink is purely professional. Without idealization. Tales of failures only add to the image of humanity - by the way, as it seems to me, it is Guus’s liveliness that is the most important quality of his personality. He is not bronze or cardboard, he is warm and lively.
3. At the same time, all those rational and idiotic critics who will inevitably begin to whine about the mentality, that we, Russians, did not adhere to foreigners, and so on, will receive a very concrete rebuff. Any non-constructive argument in this vein will receive a firm rebuff from me, and specifically here, as well as in other places where my texts are published. I will not stop before spoiling relations with someone for the sake of this, in which case. We will accept him in the Club of Broken Pilots with the issuance of a certificate.
You can criticize. But on business, not out of prejudice.
4. I do not expect any other result from the match with Latvia, except that I will certainly find out for myself the players who will be in the national team, their purely personal impressions. The scoreboard can be absolutely anything.
5. Do not, in my opinion, wait for revelation from the list of invited players. The circle of candidates for the team is quite narrow, and in general it is known. I think surprises are possible nonetheless, and I’ll try to guess where exactly. Among really, so to speak, rating strongest forwards in our country there are no truly powerful players. And any team needs a center forward, at least as a tactical option. I think that on this position in the list of people of interest to Hiddink may appear those whom we do not really expect. And not Roman Pavlyuchenko - this is not exactly his mission on the field, and indeed he is too unstable. If Pavlyuchenko is, it’s not because of the correspondence to this point-like role. I think that it can be, say, Pogrebnyak or even Serdyukov.
By the way, it is recalled that Hiddink took one of the players of the Australian national team to the World Cup because of the size, first of all, despite the fact that he played in a semi-professional club. And this player helped him a lot in the world championship, in the match with the Croats, in the game with the Japanese.
6. Why do I even believe in Hiddink? Or so - on what is the belief in the potential of today's generation of our players based? I will answer. Yes, in today's generation there is no Karpin and Bridge. No Hapless - at one time he really helped the team. But we have an excellent defense, from which any team is built today, if we talk about the sequence of coaching steps. This step is the first and it has been taken. Excellent against the background of what we could see in the Russian team in the last ten years. Three central defenders play in the same club, and even with the goalkeeper; we have an excellent lateral in the face of Anyukov, there is still Yeshchenko as an alternative on the edge ... There is Kolodin, who, of course, is more of a supporting midfielder, but can play in defense too. There are very fast Sennikov. It is precisely the fact that the foundation of the team can easily guess that it will not be necessary to create it really from scratch, inspires me personally with calm and confidence.
7. About distant prospects. That is, about what the Russian team should count on in the qualifying tournament. Please note - among those teams that, as could be judged at the start, will challenge tickets to the Euro, we have appointed a coach before everyone else. And if we take into account that Borodyuk, who had been working with the team all the previous time, turned out to be in the headquarters, then this argument even intensifies. I think that the Russian team will be charged with the task of not losing points in matches with teams weaker than themselves and playing together with favorites. First of all - assembled. Because the favorites have enough weaknesses. England never plays in the selections exactly, although we are not stronger than her, but in the distance we can beat precisely due to an even game in every match. Croatia, as it seems to me, is generally in a difficult situation - the charismatic coach, for whom personally for him! - the team at the right time concentrated and played. Together with him, leaving, reaching a critical age, several players at once. And others, even those who are not leaving, are nevertheless approaching this age. So the new coach Bilic has a very difficult task, especially when you consider that he starts with a match with us. The fact that in Croatia is now full of young talents, I honestly have not heard. This is not a reason to underestimate the Croatian national team - it is simply an admission that there is NOTHING to be afraid of.
I think that if the Russian team plays in its own strength and avoids fever, it will take the FIRST place in its qualifying group.
Well that's all. And now, as in “The Monte Cristo Count”, wait and hope.)) And wish Hiddink who has become Russified for the next two years ... Or already now, Hidenka, in our opinion ... Good luck, of course!