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Whatever they say, but for a long time Shakhtar’s game and results didn’t pose as many questions to the fans as they do today.
This is not a joke: the Pitmen have won only 2 of the last 5 matches in the Premier League, in addition to traditionally giving the Dynamo the Ukrainian Super Cup. And even earlier there were painful beatings from Inter in the semi-finals of the Europa League. And also, we lost in sparring to Olimpik.
The last time the team experienced such a series of failures was in late 2014, when shells exploded in Donbas, soldiers attacked, and the Shakhtar, and perhaps all of Ukraine, was at stake. Mircea Lucescu’s team then played at the Bannikov Stadium, and did not want to criticize them for their failures with Zorya, Dynamo or Dnipro.
Today is another matter. The Shakhtar has long adapted to its new status, even moving to the NSC, and generally in recent years, its dominance at the UPL did not raise the slightest doubt. And then all of a sudden this.
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During the last week or two, I had to read at least five fiery articles, where Luis Castro was criticized from the first to the last letter. Like, and incompetent, and not at the club level, and flaws in his conscience.
Many supporters of the “Lucescu luggage” theory appeared, which was born as soon as Mister became the boss of “Dynamo”. Before that, for four years, no one remembered any luggage, but as soon as Lucescu defeated Shakhtar in the Super Cup, his luggage was immediately found.
Although, seriously, look in the direction of Europe: which of the teams that played in the August finals of the eight Champions League and LE have no game problems now? Lyon scored 5 points in the initial 4 rounds of Ligue 1, PSG 6 points in the same segment; already lost the first points, “Leipzig”; suffers in the Premier League “Manchester United”; Inter almost lost to Ribéry, 37; Barça and Sevilla have yet to start a new season.
In fact, Bayern only remained at the same level, and that was only because they did not force the preparations for the Champions League, but simply played their usual football there. And still, he trampled everyone on the way to the trophy.
But “PSG”, “Lyon” or “Shakhtar” acted differently: they deliberately reached their best form for the European Cup matches and now, which is quite logical, they are experiencing functional decline. When it’s done, only the fitness coaches on each team can say for sure. Well, transfers could also help get through the difficult stage without pain, but the Pitmen didn’t have them either.
And what claims can there be against Castro in such conditions? He, like everyone else in his place, bet on European competitions, reached the semifinals there. By the way, before only Lucescu managed to do something similar with the Pitmen. And then the team was physically impressed, it couldn’t be otherwise. The Portuguese is a coach, not a magician.
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On the other hand, if the crisis of “September” at Shakhtar is really implausible, and already in October-November it has every chance of sinking into oblivion, then there is still another progressive crisis in the club. And it has been undermining the strength of the team for a long time.
Look at Shakhtar’s list: 90% consist of representatives of two age groups. One, like Tyson, Pyatov, Stepanenko, Marlos, Moraes, half-forgotten Dentinho, are players of 31 years or more. The second – young people under 22 years old, such as Tete, Solomon, Dodo, Vitao, Marcos Antonio, Fernando, Marquinhos Cipriano. Trubin and Bondar represent Ukraine in this group.
As a result, we get a team, where one half of the team is already physically degrading, losing speed, concentration, while the other is not yet mentally ready to replace it.
# CM2018 My champion Gerson Rodrigues was about to surprise in Toulouse, playing how he likes. #FRALUX # Telstar1963NV pic.twitter.com/yBwwMdUHQ2
– Ahmed Nouma (@mednouma) September 4, 2017
This is perfectly illustrated by the example of goalkeepers: 36-year-old Pyatov makes mistakes in his passing, misses a lot, but 19-year-old Trubin does not take advantage of the opportunities given and contributes even more. He is not willing to change the veteran, whom it is time to change. And this is a big problem for the team.
Shakhtar have that situation in many positions, and all because there are very few players in the most productive age, 23-29, at the beginning. Right now only Matvienko (24), Krivtsov (29) and Alan Patrick (29) remain. The rest are too old or too young.
The reasons for the formation of such an age difference are different and the club management cannot be blamed for this. It just “happens shit”, as the English say. 5-6 years ago, the Pitmen had the best players born in 1990-93, but Fred, Bernard, Ferreira decided to pursue a career in the West. Time has shown they were pretty weak for the Premier League and examples, but can we blame the boys for deciding to take a chance?
Most likely they would not have left if the UPL had remained at the prewar level, but history does not know the subjunctive mood. We will never know what kind of footballers Vitaly Vitsenets and Maxim Malyshev might have become, were it not for injuries. And hardly anyone will tell us frankly what stopped Viktor Kovalenko, Andrei Boryachuk, Nikita Shevchenko and Wellington Nem from stepping forward.
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Many factors came together at the same time, so the Shakhtar lost a whole generation. And while Marlos, Tyson and Stepanenko have long masked the problem with their skill, the time to account for old mistakes is near. The Pitmen are entering a zone of turbulence.
No, this will not lead to 10th place in the Premier League, our league is weak and as soon as Luis Castro’s team gets a little breath back they will definitely start to win.
But with a serious level of opposition, Shakhtar will stagnate. Actually, he’s already skating. Mircea Lucescu gladly organizes the problems of the former club, but I do not think that only the experience of the Romanian coach is now on the side of the Dynamo. Look at the composition of the Kievites: Kendzere and Verbych each have 26, De Penet is 28, Sidorchuk is 29 and Tsygankov will soon be 23. This team should play now or never.
Shakhtar have a different situation: at this stage they need change, time and the right to make mistakes. Marlos and Tyson may win more games for the team right now than Tete and Solomon, but if the youngsters sit down, they will never grow to the level of the veterans. Playing time and hitting are the whole secret to growing up in soccer.
That is why Castro is not an option for Shakhtar. He is a solid coach who knows how to achieve results with the squad that was given to him. The UEL semifinal is serious, whoever says it. But for structural and deep changes, the Portuguese is not in shape. They will peck at him after 2-3 failures, and he knows it. For this reason, in all more or less serious matches, bet exclusively on proven shots.
Both a highly regarded top manager and a club legend can be a conduit for decisive changes, which are always accompanied by unstable results. Moyes was fired from Manchester United for sparing Solskjaer, and in this context, Darijo Srna’s candidacy looks very promising, he was already waiting for an opportunity. Kashtru now only has power over the training process. Srna, thanks to your experience, you can get much more.
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And when this happens, when Shakhtar is headed by a cult person from the club, it will become really interesting.
And by that time, Castro will be fighting to preserve the situation and squeeze every last juice out of the players who are already 95% squeezed. They may even be enough for another Premier League victory. But this will not stop the growing crisis. It will continue to undermine the team, when it is weakest, when it is strongest, but continuously.
And then bang, and the geniuses from yesterday get 2: 8 just because they got old and didn’t go on time. A good lesson for everyone. It’s a shame that people never learn from other people’s mistakes.
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