"Nothing has changed for me with the arrival of a new head coach"

In the current Russian Football Championship, Rubin Kazan is stuck in the middle of the standings. In the winter, the head coach was replaced in the team — instead of Rashid Rakhimov, Spaniard Frank Artiga came. With him, the club from the capital of Tatarstan began the spring part of the season with an away defeat from Dynamo Makhachkala (1:2), but then sensationally beat two rivals from the top three at home. First, Krasnodar, the leader and reigning champion, was defeated (2:1), then Lokomotiv Moscow, which was coming in third, was defeated (3:0).

This allows the team to confidently take eighth place in the championship, but the gap from the top three is still large - 12 points nine rounds before the finish. In an interview with Izvestia, Rubin midfielder Ruslan Bezrukov commented on the victories over the leaders, talked about the changes under Artiga and the goals for the rest of the season.

— What has Artiga changed in the team during the winter training camp?

— In the training process, I think there are more positional games, games with ball retention. We're playing squares a lot now, which is exactly what modern football requires. This is just one of the innovations.

— What has changed for you with the arrival of the new head coach?

— I think that in general nothing. Maybe only Artiga began to trust me more, to liberate me. And so, in general, is Mamatkulych (Rashid Rakhimov. — Ed.) demanded that I open up more behind my back and get the balls between the lines. Now, just because the whole team is more focused on ball control, on a quick transition from defense to attack, my position has begun to open up more.

— After the matches against Krasnodar and Loko, how would you rate the chances of these teams winning gold? Or do you prefer Zenit?

— I won't call anyone a favorite. All three teams are equal, plus or minus. So everyone has a chance.

— Do you feel special emotions from the fact that all three leaders took away points at home in this championship — now they beat Krasnodar and Loko under Artiga, and drew with Zenit at the beginning of the season under Rakhimov (2:2)?

— Of course, we are glad. But we still set ourselves a higher goal — to get into the top five. We dream of this task and want to do everything for it.

— Do you believe that this is possible?

— Six points to fifth place. So why not?

"Whoever says they don't look at the chart is lying"

Lokomotiv football player Artyom Karpukas — about the struggle for leadership in the RPL and the reasons for failures in recent matches

— Aren't you going to try for medals and win back a 12-point gap from third place?

— We need to solve the tasks gradually. (He smiles.) First, we need to solve the one I mentioned. We go from match to match. And so we must first get these six points to fifth place, and then look further.

— Rubin won both victories this spring over teams from the top of the table, which are not very defensive. Can there be problems with opponents from the bottom of the table defending themselves with a large number of players, like Dynamo Makhachkala, to whom you lost away?

— That match should be deleted because of the weather conditions (heavy snowfall. — Ed.) There were times when there was a minimum of football. Everything that Artiga demanded was annulled. And he said it himself before the match, because he has been working in Russia for several years and is familiar with our football. That's why I gave the instruction that you don't have to pay attention to the weather, but you don't have to control the ball either, you need to simplify the game as much as possible and distance it from your goal. Therefore, we will delete the match in Makhachkala altogether. And now we will try to bring everything that the coach requires into the game. I think this will partly affect the game with the teams that operate in the lower block. We will try to solve this problem.