"I consider Dzyuba to be the best striker in Russia in recent years"

The newcomer to the Premier League, Akron, is surprising this season. A private club from Tolyatti signed Artem Dzyuba, beat Zenit and is in ninth place. One of the main creators of this success is the mentor of the team Zaur Tedeev. In a lengthy interview with Izvestia and Sport-Express, the 43-year-old Russian specialist spoke about the club's philosophy, matches against the giants, Dzyuba's influence on the team, Stefan Lonchar's performance and rivalry with the Wings of the Soviets in the Samara region.

"When I get older, maybe I'll tell my grandchildren about the victory over Zenit

— Are you satisfied with the work done by the team at the training camp?

— Thank God, we had very good conditions for the implementation of the entire training program. We were lucky, everything went well. We are satisfied with the attitude of the players towards the training process. Everyone worked as one, with the right emotional attitude and dedication. It is important that, in addition to the training sessions, the guys got a load on the beach, playing volleyball. We, the coaches, watched the good atmosphere inside the team from the outside.

— Were there any injuries?

— Alas! But it was impossible to predict these injuries. I am referring to the injuries suffered by Bakayev and Rodri (Rodrigo Escoval. — Izvestia). In general, our medical staff fully coped with their functions, paying a lot of attention to the recovery of the children. I think the team is well prepared for the second part of the season.

— If we analyze the first part of the championship, what can your team gain?

— First of all, I would like to draw attention to the cohesion within our team. All for each other! Secondly, it is the dedication of each player individually. In any match, you can find a lot of moments in which the guys literally stick together, bite out the balls, and give themselves completely.

As for the game itself and tactics, Akron has always been true to its style in attack. I don't recall any meetings in which we either didn't want to put pressure on the opponent in his half of the field at all, or we were afraid to do it. This already indicates a certain looseness of the players, that they are comfortable playing with each other.

— What else did you like?

— Although not immediately, we managed to find a balance between attacking actions and how the team plays immediately after losing the ball. At first, the guys were positioned incorrectly when the ball was in the opponent's possession, but in the end they improved in this aspect.

What else? Before the winter break, Akron was almost the best team in the entire league in terms of physical fitness. He was one of the top three. I am referring to the total distance that our players have covered, and the high running intensity.

Our top pressure also makes the coaching staff satisfied. We scored a lot of goals after such actions, created chances, seized the initiative. Overall, in terms of the number of goals scored in the other half of the field, we also found ourselves in the leading group in the championship.

— What is alarming then?

— There are enough points that we still have to work on and work on. Defense. And this applies not only to the goalkeeper and defenders, but to the whole team playing in their own half of the field. Here we lack composure, calmness, and poise. It is mostly about the mental characteristics of the wards. We understood that we were sagging in this component, so we called in a special coach, Murat Salimovich Iskakov.

— What about the games against the grandees? We'll talk about your brilliant victory over Zenit later, but there were also major defeats against CSKA (0:4), Krasnodar (2:5), St. Petersburg (0:5), Spartak (0:4). What's it? Psychology? Some kind of complex?

— One could call it a complex only if in all the matches you listed the team was closed, afraid to go forward and would not even think about attacking. But none of this happened! Probably, only the first half against Spartak gets out of the picture. We didn't plan it, but we sat deep in our own half of the field. In fact, they didn't even rise high before the half-time whistle. We missed one goal. It seems to me that this was generally the worst stretch that Akron spent with me, even if we take the matches in the FNL!

— What happened in the locker room?

— During the break, we adjusted certain points, asked the guys to play bolder, higher.

— As a result — 0:4...

— Yes, we missed three more. But, surprisingly, I liked our second half better than the first! It's a paradox, isn't it? I mean the quality of football, the club philosophy. So I came to the following conclusion for myself: it doesn't matter how much you miss. What matters is how you lose! Otherwise, it turns out that our main goal is to rise from, say, ninth place to eighth, considering this to be the highest sporting achievement. But what about the game itself, the aggression, and your own attacks?

In my opinion, you should try to play your football against any opponent. At the same time, of course, taking into account the strengths of Zenit, Spartak, Krasnodar, CSKA, Dynamo, Loko.

We're still looking for ourselves. Akron is an absolute newcomer to the RPL, but we need to keep our face, our style. This is a message from the owner of the club, the management. I like this approach, I like it.

We need to build a team so that people here can show their best football and human qualities. And don't forget to give young people a chance, which, in principle, we more than succeeded in the first part of the season!

— So you will never put a "bus" against Zenit or Spartak?

— I don't fully understand the meaning of this term, stamp. What is a "bus"? Tight defense in your own penalty area?

— Stand behind the whole team, fight back and wait for your chance ahead.

— Well, yes. You know, my current players would be bored playing in this manner. It's very unusual. It is better to lose big to the grandees, but at the same time attacking and snapping, than to concede to all of them with a score of 0:1, just fighting back. I'm in favor of this approach. It can eventually lead to victory.

After all, the children from the academy are also watching us. They are guided by how the first team acts in difficult matches. Would it be pleasant for young guys to look at a blind defense?

— Does the beautiful away win over Zenit before the winter break, when you didn't go deep into defense, confirm the correctness of your words?

— I want to believe it. Thank you for your kind words. Very nice!

— Is it already possible to add this season to your asset just because you managed to defeat the national champion on the road?

— You can check your boxes only in old age. But now I'm proud of something else.

— With what?

— The players I work with. The fact that FC Akron is not like anyone else. The fact that there is complete trust and mutual understanding with the management, the sports unit, the wards, and the fans. You should have seen how the guys are plowing in training! Here I can give us many, many ticks of the green, noble color (smiles). And the victory over Zenit is certainly not in the first place for me now. When I get older, maybe I'll tell my grandchildren about this game (laughs).

"We have formed a real international"

— Let's move on to the personalities. Has Artyom Dzyuba exceeded your expectations?

— You know, somehow I manage to understand a person at the first meeting. And, in principle, I can guess what will happen from this acquaintance and cooperation in the future. Apparently, this is a gift from the Lord.

— Do you want to say that after the first conversation with Dzyuba, I became confident that there would be no problems with him?

— What Artyom is currently doing for FC Akron is worth a lot. It influences the result, helps the youth develop, builds a normal, correct microclimate within the team. It is Dzyuba, along with our other leaders — Savichev, Volkov, Kuzmin, Vasyutin — who helps the legionnaires adapt.

We have formed a real international. It's close to me, it's important. I grew up with the Alania team, which became the champion of Russia in 1995. And so representatives of 12 nationalities played in it. The most international team of the major league! Everyone was united by one idea. That's a guideline for me.

The football players who come to us do not feel like strangers in Akron. And Artyom became one of the key figures in this story.

— Probably Dzyuba's most striking action on the field in the first part of the season was a header against Zenit (2:1)?

— For me, this goal is significant in many aspects. He is a good training tool for strikers who want to play at a very high level. Dzyuba demonstrated to everyone how a football player who does not possess crazy speed qualities can free himself from custody in a split second. Artyom did everything so quickly and in a coordinated manner that the defender of St. Petersburg (Rodrigao. — Izvestia) lost sight of our forward for a moment. As a result, Dzyuba was hitting the goal with his head without any interference. Believe me, this is a quality mark! But it happened in the penalty area, where you are usually played to the end, body to body. But Artyom played, as they say, in two diagonals.

— Please explain.

— At first he played a false diagonal, fell off his opponent when opening. And the ball caught up with him in the second diagonal. But, again, how Artyom got free, how he intuitively felt where the ball was going to fly after Roberto Fernandez's serve! We examined this goal in detail, one might say, under a microscope. And we came to the conclusion that it should be included in textbooks for children from academies. It is a very useful exercise for the education and development of central strikers.

— Interesting.

— I consider Dzyuba to be the best striker in Russia in recent years. He played consistently and effectively for the national team and brought benefits to it. And Dzyuba's game and techniques need to be studied in academies and integrated into the training system. When I worked at Alania, I believed that children should understand the famous feint of Inal Dzhioev, defender of the golden Alania-1995. He beat the whole of Russia with it (smiles). In other words, the younger generation should have guidelines that have done a lot for our football. Artyom is one of them.

— In conversations with you, does Dzyuba emphasize that it is important for him to overtake Alexander Kerzhakov and become the Russian record holder?

— Dzyuba shows his ambitions all the time. He is ready to argue everywhere and ready to win everywhere. Not only in football. But also in tennis, basketball, and so on. In training, it's more important for him to score more than the others in a small goal. He makes bets with someone all the time (laughs). This raises the level of motivation within our team. I really like it. Even now, I try to include small gates in any technical part of the training, so that the others compete with Artyom, so that they concentrate more on performing certain elements. Dzyuba is always focused on results.

— So what about Kerzhakov's record?

— Artyom and I haven't talked about this topic. But he should be able to do it. I sincerely wish him to solve this problem as well. You just have to understand what level of player he is. Just think about it: every year our schools and academies produce about 5,000 central strikers. And how many of them reach the RPL? And up to Dzyuba's level?

— Stefan Lonchar scored five goals and provided six assists in 18 RPL matches. What do you attribute this performance to the Montenegrin?

— We understood that Stefan had certain qualities. However, at some point something went wrong with him at Debrecen, he lost his place in the squad. He was no longer called up to the national team.

And when Lonchar ended up at Akron, my task was to give him confidence in his abilities. I got turned on myself, I wanted to bring Stefan back to his previous level, to introduce him to our idea, the team. And it looks like it worked. Lonchar adapted pretty quickly and opened up. He is a true professional, a plowman, who gave himself completely to training. It treats recovery correctly.

Yes, he is quite emotional, difficult, like many football players. And that's great! We talked a lot with him. The Lord has rewarded him. After all, the main talent is the ability to work. And when he was called up to the national team again, it was a victory for us. It's prestigious when a person is not invited to the national team for eight months, and then they are called there from Akron. I think Stefan is still capable of improving.

— Benschimol had a surge in matches against Rostov and Paris NN. And then there was a lull again. Why?

— The adaptation process continues. He's a young football player. There is a time for everything. Of course, he still needs to add in many aspects — technical, tactical. And he can do it. I hope that Benshimol will play more stable in the spring. The main thing is to avoid injury.

I won't say that he was a complete failure in the first part of the season. It's just that he's a player who stays in the final third of the field all the time. He needs to make the last or penultimate decision, and this is sometimes the most difficult action. From a football player, his role sometimes requires him to play more unconventionally, more cunningly. Something is working out for him, something is not very good yet.

— Do you agree that Danilin lacks specifics in the final stage?

— Yes, perhaps. But the same can be said about the rest. There's always something missing. I'm sure if you ask Artyom Dzyuba, he will also find some points that he is not satisfied with. Of course, you want your players to always act efficiently and gracefully.

But, alas, we are not jewelers who can fix something in a second in manual mode. No, it's a long process. It is necessary to constantly convince the player that he is able to play better, that he should train more. I believe in my guys, including Danilin. Because I see their dedication in training. But there's nowhere without luck. After all, sometimes a player makes some very good decisions, but the ball does not fly into the goal. And his partner can stand for the whole match, and then in the end hit the goal or give an assist. And then everyone talks about it for months (smiles).

— Akron strengthened pointwise in winter. The club has signed Bosnian central midfielder Ifet Djakovec and Romanian central defender Jonuc Nedelcaru, who previously played for Ufa. Why is the bet placed on the legionnaires? Where are the Russians? Where is the result of the academy's work?

— I will be able to answer the second part of the question in more detail. Nevertheless, our sports director Aram Armenovich Zadoyan will tell you better about the negotiation process and the nuances of transfers. Why couldn't we find stronger Russian players? I'll just assume that they're worth a completely different amount of money. As for the academy's work, Dmitriev, Gribov and Pestryakov have already played in the Premier League in the first part of the season. A large group of young football players regularly go through training camps with the main team.

"We are on the place in the table that we deserve"

— Do you feel the antagonism between Akron and Wings of the Soviets? It seems that the governor of the Samara region favors a private club more than a team that needs to spend budget money on.

— I have great respect for the Krylia coaching staff. Igor Vitalievich (Osinkin. — Izvestia) is actually my countryman. I highly appreciate everything he does and has done for the development of Russian football, including in Ossetia. He did a lot of work at the Konoplev Academy.

So I definitely don't have any, let's say, revanchist sentiments towards Krylia. There is only a sports component. That's all. Besides, my friend Ruslan Pimenov has now joined the management of the club. We played together in the Russian youth national team. I can't have any animosity with this team a priori! I just want to win always and everywhere. But there is no subtext here.

— And it doesn't matter to you to be above "Wings" in the final table?

— It is important for me to win every match, not paying attention to the table in principle. We're in the middle now. This is not an achievement to be proud of. To date, Akron's biggest success has been getting into the RPL. This is a historic event. We have our own academy, our own students who are already playing in the Premier League. That's what warms the soul, not a victory over a single opponent. Although, of course, the appetite grows while eating, we want to take new frontiers. But that's definitely not what you asked (smiles).

— Akron is currently in ninth place. What final result will you be satisfied with?

— Basically, we are now at the place in the table that we deserve. If we gain stability in terms of game interactions and team building, this will be our main achievement in the spring. But to say that I dream of becoming the sixth or seventh... Well, I don't know.

— So you, like Krylia, don't have a tough task to get into the top eight?

— I don't quite understand this task. What does it mean to be in the top eight? In third place, it's super. It's a tough task. But this requires conditions, a financial component, and the selection of players. It's a medal, a new story.

And to become the fourth, the fifth... To be in the Europa League zone? But, alas, we don't have European cups right now. Therefore, it seems to me that it is not so important for Rostov or Rubin to enter this zone.

Here are the first three — yes. It is very interesting and prestigious. Will Akron ever be ready to storm the medals? Time will show. I can't answer this question yet. We still have a lot to go through.