"We haven't been able to find our way to someone else's gate lately"
Earlier this week, the KHL suffered one of the strangest resignations in league history. Dynamo Moscow has fired its head coach Alexei Kudashov. This happened after the 3-2 away victory over Sibir and after ten matches, seven of which the blue and white won. Under Kudashov's leadership, they reached the semi—finals of the Gagarin Cup in the spring, the club's best result since 2013. At the time of his retirement, the team was only five points behind the first place in the Western Conference of the regular season.
Kudashov was replaced by his long-term assistant Vyacheslav Kozlov. But so far this has led to only two home defeats — against Spartak (2:4) in the Moscow derby and in shootouts from Siberia (3:4), which ended its nightmarish streak of 13 defeats in a row following the meeting with Dynamo. In an interview with Izvestia, blue and white striker Artem Ilyenko explained the reasons for the failures.
— What happened to Dynamo in the match against Siberia? Why was it only at the end of the third period that we were able to turn on when we equalized the score in the last two minutes, losing 1-3?
— In principle, I think that we spent the whole game, most of it, in the opponent's zone. But we conceded the first goal in the majority. We missed a Sibir player, and we were caught in that moment. And we got a counterattack. As a result, the opponent scored in the minority. Besides, we haven't been playing our chances well lately, we can't find a way to someone else's goal. It was only at the end of the regular time of the match with Siberia that they somehow crushed the opponent and equalized the score. It's a pity that we lost by shootout.
— Was Dynamo affected by the fact that Siberia had previously lost 13 matches in a row? Could there have been a malfunction?
— To be honest, I didn't pay attention to their series, to what the opponent had. We took the game as seriously as possible.
— To what extent are the failures in the last two matches related to the resignation of Alexei Kudashov?
— I don't know. I can only talk about the game that went by, about what didn't work out in the match against Siberia.
— How did you react to the dismissal of the head coach?
— I don't want to speak out on this topic. Everything was said by our captain — I fully support him (after the match with Spartak, Dynamo captain Igor Ozhiganov called Kudashov's resignation the most unexpected in his career, but urged him not to give up, to continue playing, "not to lose the old and implement the new." — Ed.). We try to prepare as well as possible for each match. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
— Vyacheslav Kozlov, who replaced Kudashov, worked as his predecessor's assistant, but has something changed in tactics and the training process in four days under his leadership?
- of course. Each coach tries to make some points of his own, but the pattern of the game has not changed much. Only isolated moments.
— How much has the atmosphere in the team changed at Dynamo after Kudashov's resignation against the background of two defeats?
— Of course, when a team loses, the atmosphere is not the best. But there is always a next meeting. And we are preparing for it. We have a very serious opponent ahead of us — Khabarovsk Amur. We need to make good use of the four-day break between the matches with him and Siberia and prepare well.
— Sport-Express wrote that after Kudashov's resignation, Dynamo suspended negotiations on contract extensions with you, Kirill Adamchuk and Jordan Wheel. How can you comment on this?
— I do not know. I personally don't have any contract discussions — my agent is in charge of this. This is actually the first time I've heard such news.
— Do you believe that Dynamo can perform no worse this season than in the past, when they reached the semifinals of the playoffs under Kudashov's leadership?
— I don't think ahead so much. I don't think anyone in our team thinks that far ahead. We're just getting ready for the next match.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
