- Impressions of returning to the Premier League?
- Now the one who is better prepared physically is winning. Spring, the fields are bad, technology is relegated to the background, and teams with many powerful players who often wins martial arts are winning. A lot of struggle, a little technique - these are my impressions. Clubs began to pay more attention to physical training in order to play better in the spring fields. Technical footballers are very hard right now.
- “Saturn” again has “no one’s disease”, as in the last season. Can you explain what this is connected with?
- After four rounds, it is very difficult to talk about the reasons for frequent draws. Now, if “Saturn” has 16 draws at the end of the championship, as last year, then I’ll definitely tell you the reason. In the meantime, I can only share one observation: we skip all the time after the standard provisions. From “Tomi”, from “Wings”, from “Zenith” in the Cup ... We need to work out the game in defense more with the “standards” that the opponent fulfills. We have already made the same mistake several times, which led to the loss of points. If we correct it, we will win. And in the first round match with Zenit we were ten men, in which case this was the reason for the draw.
- The point, perhaps, is not only in defense. “Saturn” with difficulty given goals.
- It's temporary, you see. We will soon break through. If there are moments, then the goals will come sooner or later. Kirichenko, Gogua and I did not go through pre-season training with Saturn, and it is the number of goals that depends on us for the most part, since Gogita and I have to give the passes, and Dima to score. Of course, Lebedenko and Yakubko can score, but Kirichenko has had much more goals over the past seasons.
- At the same time, does the team have a task to get into European competitions?
- Yes, we wanted to do it faster - through the Cup of Russia. But it didn’t work out. Now there is only a long way to go - to occupy a high place in the championship. Draws, of course, are better than defeats, but you need to start winning as soon as possible. By the way, this season we played much better away. If you watch our matches with Zenit and Tomyu, you will understand that the team has a game. In each of these matches, we were seriously mistaken only once. But, unfortunately, these mistakes led to goals conceded.
- Play “Saturn” in the championship of Portugal, what place would he occupy?
- Comparing the championships of Russia and Portugal is generally not quite right. There has long been formed a big three clubs that stand apart and every year they play the championship and trips to the Champions League. The remaining teams are approximately equal, they have comparable chances for places in the UEFA Cup, with the exception of a couple of outsiders, which are determined during the championship. In recent years, following the Big Three, Braga, Boavista, Leiria more often finished. There is no such big three in Russia yet - after all, many teams won medals in different seasons, only in the last two seasons the first three places have been exactly repeated. But in any case, Saturn would have claimed at least fourth place in Portugal.
Vadim SINAEV