"Shpilevsky's football can be safely brought to life"

The football club Pari Nizhny Novgorod was supposed to be eliminated from the RPL last year following the results of the transition matches with Sochi." (1:0; 3:1), but he remained in the Premier League due to the bankruptcy of Khimki, who finished above Nizhny Novgorod. In the summer, the team was led by Alexey Shpilevsky, a well-known Belarusian specialist who grew up in Germany. He is considered one of the most talented coaches in the post-Soviet space with a specific style of pressure play, which is practiced by most modern German specialists.

The start for Shpilevsky was a failure — only two wins in the first 16 matches of the championship and a hopeless last place, but two finishing victories allowed the team to rise to 14th place and get out of the relegation zone. In an interview with Izvestia, Paris NN defender Maxim Shnaptsev explained how winter training camps would help the 37-year-old coach improve his team's game, what his reaction was to the overly cautious football of his players in winning matches, what awaits the club if its top scorer Juan Boselli leaves, and why there was no desire during the vacation. to leave Thailand.

"Because of the snowfall in Moscow, I took only five minutes longer by taxi"

— What did you do during the month, were you on vacation?

— I was in Thailand, vacationing with friends for two weeks. I really wanted to stay there, but I had to go to Moscow to train. So from December 26, I spent the rest of my vacation in Moscow, where I was already preparing for the training camp.

— Why did you want to stay in Thailand so much?

— I don't know. It was good there. It's warm, I got on a bike in the evening and went somewhere into the sunset - I don't know, to play padel, to work on the beach with a ball, to play tennis (smiles). The atmosphere was good, but it's cold in Moscow now — I got to the gym, worked out, then had lunch and went back home. And there you sit on the street all day and enjoy yourself.

— Were you there for the first time?

"The third time." Before that, for some reason, I didn't want to stay. For some reason, this mood appeared right now, when it was absolutely necessary to go to Moscow to train.

— You said that you got on a bike in the evening. Are you fond of riding it?

— No, I'm not getting carried away. I had an unpleasant story — three years ago, a friend crashed on a bike. And my friends and I didn't get on a motorcycle ourselves after that — we just rode a taxi. And they sat down with the taxi driver. As it is, I definitely don't want to get carried away myself after my friend crashed.

— Two days before the medical check-up, Moscow was flooded with snowfall, which had not been in the capital for a very long time. Did this add to the frustration of not being able to stay longer in Thailand?

— Well, there was no shock from this — I took a taxi around Moscow.

— On days of such snowfall, it does not always save.

— No, it's fine. Sometimes we ride as if on ice. When the car turns corners, it's like you're on a sled. And so they started driving just five minutes longer.

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"If we are physically ready, we can play Shpilevsky football"

— What do you expect from the winter training camp?

— I'm waiting for hard work. But I've prepared for it. I am ready to withstand everything and come to the spring part.

— Have you prepared yourself in the sense that you didn't have a single extra gram at the medical check-up before you left for the training camp?

— I even lost 500 grams (smiles). Mentally prepared and recovered, physically prepared. In all aspects, I am ready to show my best and give my best.

— When Paris NN was in last place in the summer and for most of the autumn, you publicly supported Shpilevsky, saying that it was necessary to make it through the winter with minimal losses so that he could give the team the football he wanted at long training camps. Can we say that the victories in the last two matches before the winter break over Akron (2:1) and Dynamo Makhachkala (2:1) fulfilled the minimum task of keeping the head coach in his post?

— As if yes. In the end, they started to straighten things out a little bit. We'll see how the season ends, but it's good to have at least two wins at the end of the year. And feel a little better in the table. But we will still strive to get out of not only the relegation zone, but also the transition zone.

— It seemed that Paris NN had moved away from Shpilevsky's system with his pressure in the last two winning matches and played more defensively. Was it purposeful, or did the rivals force it?

— I think, psychologically, I already wanted to get three points in the last matches. And we relied more on the situation on the pitch. They didn't want to take any chances. Alexey Nikolaevich gave us one tactic, but there could be such a situation on the field that it's better to be safe. It also happened that in the last two matches we scored first, and we had to keep the score.

— Was Shpilevsky unhappy? Or did he realize by the end of November that it was better to score maximum points in any way, and by spring he would be playing his football at long training camps?

— I do not know what his thoughts were. But I think he started adjusting to us anyway. Alexey Nikolaevich began to adjust tactics based on our capabilities.

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— Do you believe that the current Paris NN squad will be able to effectively adapt to Shpilevsky's game system following the winter training camp?

— I am 100% sure of it. If we are physically well prepared now, we can play this kind of football. In the first part of the season, we had systematic mistakes — someone overlooked somewhere, and a child's penalty was awarded somewhere. These mistakes were repeated, although we played well and in some matches we looked better than our opponents. But no luck. It already came from mentality and experience. In terms of playing qualities, we are not inferior to many teams. Therefore, the football that Shpilevsky puts on can be safely brought to life. The main thing is to avoid making blunders at your own goal and in your own half of the field.

— Have you been following the news about the possible departure of Pari NN leader Juan Boselli to Krasnodar?

— Two days before the medical examination, I thought that he had officially signed a contract with Krasnodar. And as a result, so far no one has signed anything. We just read the news: it goes away, it stays. Then CSKA appears as his future club, then Krasnodar. He's here now, at the training camp.

— How much will his potential departure affect the team?

— We will lose 100% in the final third, in the organization of the moments. If we look at defense, then we'll add it somewhere. There will be a player who works more in terms of defense. But we will definitely lose in the attack. No matter who comes, Boselli still stands out.