- Today it became known that nine Spartak football players will not be able to play on Sunday against Luch because of injuries. Among them are base players Jiranek, Bystrov and Kovacs. In addition, Mozart and Rebko are disqualified. How will you get out?
- And how did we get out before that? I have been playing Spartak for three years now and I can tell you for sure: we don’t have the main team. Rather, we have no indispensable ones. We even Titov flew out last year - and nothing, played well without him. Even when there were no injuries, Vladimir Grigoryevich often did not repeat the composition that he put up in the previous game. We have a very strong bench, especially in the midfield. You can’t absolutely guarantee who will play for Spartak in the next match - I, Torbinsky or Kalinichenko, for example.
- That is, the Spartak players do not care whether to play or to sit in reserve?
- Not certainly in that way. It is better, of course, to play at the core, because in this case the player understands that the club needs him, that they trust him. All our players strive to get into the starting lineup. When you leave from the first minutes, you feel better, your mood rises. And “Spartak” is just that good because they left you on the bench now and you only left for a replacement, and in the next round you will play the whole match. But at the same time, there are still players in Spartak who, if healthy, play from match to match. For example, Jiranek, Titov, Pavlyuchenko before injury. Last year, Fedotov checked our capabilities, so to speak, met with us, and therefore the composition was shuffled. Now there is no such strong rotation as last season.
- It turns out that Fedotov repeats the tactics of Rafael Benitez, whose obviously strong footballer was sitting on the bench in order to strengthen the game at the right time?
- I would not want to discuss Fedotov’s tactics. You know, after the end of my career I plan to become a football coach, and I already have some beliefs about the formation of the starting lineup. We all understand that the composition must be stable, which is good when the same players interact perfectly on the field. Fans and journalists think that the constancy of the composition is the key to a successful game. But I have a different opinion. Perhaps this should be sought, but the strongest should enter the field from the first minutes. Kurban Berdyev adhered to this principle when I played in Rubin, Fedotov also works, and I will work on the same principle.
- When the Spartak player finds out that he will play in the base?
- We become aware of this three days before the match. In pre-match training, any player already knows their fate. Players of the starting line-up train separately from the substitutes and intersect only in bilaterals.
- Usually, rich clubs do not risk betting on youth. For example, the same CSKA produces doubles only for a few minutes or if there is no one else to play. Why in “Spartak” so many yesterday's understudies have almost made their way to the base? “Spartak decided to become a farm?
- Here, by the way, is another principle that I will use in my coaching career - we must let young people play. If the coach is confident that the understudy will play stronger than the base player, then why not give him a chance? You understand, the growth of a young player, his career depends not only on him, but also on the coach. Shishkin, Torbinsky, Dziuba and Rebko should say thanks to Fedotov. If they had played under a different coach or in another team, they would have long been on lease in the first league, as is done in many large clubs. It happens that a talented guy is not noticed, believing that it is better to buy a player for this position.
- Have you already studied the game "Ray of Energy"? How do you like this team this season?
- Yes, we already constantly watch matches of the “Ray”. You wake up at the base on a weekend, at 11 or 12, have breakfast, then turn on the TV, and there the “Ray” plays. Usually in the mornings there is nothing to do there, that's why we watch their home matches by almost the whole team. Well what can I say: a good team, but some kind of home team. Away plays a lot worse. Honestly, I can’t imagine how they wander back and forth, poor ...
- Maybe it would be better for Spartak to fly to Vladivostok now, to shoot back, so as not to go there in the second round?
“No, what's the difference?” Of course, last season, by coincidence, we arrived there without eight or nine players, but still played great. After the game, even the guys from Luch told us: “In the first half, you drove us like that - no one drove us like that yet.” Accidentally lost. You remember the unaccounted goal of Bazhenov. Now we don’t get hit like that.
Vadim SINAEV