"Batrakov, Glebov and Kislyak are talents, but then everything depends on their attitude to football"
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- "Batrakov, Glebov and Kislyak are talents, but then everything depends on their attitude to football"
One of the best coaches in the history of Russian football, Yuri Semin, gave a long interview to Izvestia and Sport-Express. In a detailed conversation, the long-term coach of Lokomotiv talked about the upcoming World Cup, the favorites of the Champions League, the prospects of the Russian national team and the best Russian football players.
"The Italian championship has become weaker, and the national team has become an ordinary team"
— Are there any teams in this European season that you like the most? And after last year's PSG triumph, did you expect the same dominance of Parisians or someone else?
— There was no dominance last year either. Do you remember PSG's semi-final with Arsenal in Paris? In the first 15 minutes, the French should have lost 0:2, and then they would hardly have saved this match. No one can have a big advantage in the long run now, since the opportunities of a whole group of leading clubs from different countries are about the same and the lineups are the same.
But why do I think PSG's chances are big enough this year? Because the French championship is easier than the same Premier League. It's a very difficult league in England, especially since Arsenal will fight to the last for the championship title, which they haven't won for many, many years. Domestically, the Gunners will lose a lot of energy and emotions, which, it seems to me, will make it much more difficult for them to prepare for the final even if they reach it.
PSG probably won't have such problems, although Lance has been on a par with him for a long time, but now they are already inferior. Luis Enrique's team defeated all the English rivals last season, and now it has reached its optimal capacity, and I consider it the number one candidate for the Champions League. Perhaps, along with Bayern, which, however, he did not see much during the season (after the match, Semin will be delighted with the Munich team and will call them one of the main contenders to win the Champions League. — Ed.).
But the Germans and the French are not united by such high competition within their countries, and things are even easier for the Munich residents. They are already de facto champions. I think PSG and Bayern will meet in the semifinals, and the future winner of the tournament will most likely be determined in this pair.
— By the quarterfinals, all Italian clubs had been eliminated from the Champions League, and her national team did not qualify for the third consecutive World Cup. Has the Series A lost much?
— Everything is visible to the naked eye. First, let's recall Inter's defeat in the final of the last Champions League. It would seem that a strong and qualified team. But the 0-5 defeat psychologically threw her, like other Italian clubs, far back. And the whole Italian championship has become much weaker than it was before. And the national team has turned into a very ordinary team.
— There are statistics according to which the maximum term of work of current head coaches in Serie A is 1 year and 10 months. Does this also affect the quality of the game?
— It's amazing. Many Italian coaches work abroad and do well. Take, for example, Enzo Marescu, who won the club World Cup with a fairly young Chelsea squad, and for some reason was fired during the next season.
And why is such a rotation of coaches taking place in Italy itself? Apparently, the club leaders are not very happy, they see that there is no progress in Serie A and the clubs are not winning on the international stage. Which is easiest in this case? Change the coach. It comes from the fact that they don't seem to know what to do.
— Were you surprised by the failure of the Italians to attend the World Cup for the third time in a row?
— This is a disaster for both the national team and the league. Everything is fair, and it is right that the president of the federation decided to leave on his own. And it was impossible for the head coach to stay in such a situation. The team really played very poorly, and not only against Bosnia, an ordinary team. I think with Spalletti, if he had stayed, it would have been more realistic to go to the World Cup.
There will be many teams even below the average level at this World Cup. I don't like the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. It is very difficult to recruit so many national teams for a high-quality tournament. And Italy, even with such a large number, did not get there. And not only the Italians, but also the Danes — how so?..
— Are you going to watch the whole World Cup?
— If I go there, I won't be able to do it entirely, because the distances are very long. I remember this well from the 1994 World Cup, where I helped Pavel Sadyrin in the Russian national team. But now the tournament is not even in one, but in three countries. If not, I will watch all the most important matches on TV. Even if they are at night, Moscow time. What to do — temporarily change the night to day!
"I sympathize with the Argentines, I will worry about the Uzbeks"
— Who do you consider the main favorite of the World Cup?
— I think there are two favorites — Spain and Argentina. I like the Argentines, and I like their team because of Messi. There are also a lot of Argentine players in our league.
— If the Uzbek national team, when they changed their coach for the World Cup, had called you instead of Fabio Cannavaro, would you have agreed? Did you take a chance?
"Why not?" Of course! I'll worry about the Uzbeks. These are our closest neighbors and friends. They will make their debut at the World Championships, and getting out of the group will be a great success for them. It's difficult, but it's possible. It's enough to see how Husanov plays at Manchester City.
This is a complete revelation to me! He didn't come to City right away. At first, the guy played in Uzbekistan, then in Belarus, from where he got to France and from there to England. So where were our clairvoyant breeders? How did you miss such a player? You have to see football and football players! Just like they missed Khvich at Lokomotiv.
But Guardiola saw this diamond and took it. Khusanov plays both in the center of defense and on the edge, without loss of quality, which is rare. Moreover, he is very young, but at that age, a coach of Pep's level trusts him with the most important matches. In Manchester City, where the stands are crowded, top opponents, tremendous tension and the highest level!
— Khusanov has already been named City's player of the month twice.
— You see— that's a good guy. But it was necessary to see it — without stereotypes: who, from where... Is that how he got past our league?! I think if he had been invited from Uzbekistan to any RPL club, he would have gone. But they didn't. That's the problem.
"Maybe Karpin is right, but to me, this is a very controversial approach."
— Are you interested in the matches of the Russian national team against such rivals as Nicaragua and Mali? To be honest, I don't.
— When I can, I always watch. Because it's the Russian national team after all. The most difficult point here is psychology. Football players don't always play one hundred percent. Because some people think that Nicaragua can be beaten completely. You can't beat anyone like that right now! You need to put maximum effort everywhere.
And the second point. On the one hand, maybe Karpin is right that such a huge number of football players go through the national team to see everyone up close. On the other hand, it is already necessary to determine the main composition. We need to see that they are the best. There is no such thing as having all the strongest players on the field in every match from the very first minute. To me, this is a very controversial approach.
— Is it worth calling up veterans to the national team now? Maybe it's better to play those who are 25 and younger, considering that the time of the national team's return to the international arena is still in the fog?
— I think it's not worth overloading the national team with very experienced players. Irreplaceable people of this age are not particularly visible. Maybe Golovin is it.
— Is Golovin's eight years at Monaco an indicator of quality or a fear of changing places? Maybe he should have tried to change something.
— I think if there was any big serious offer, whether it was from PSG, the leading English and Spanish teams, Bayern, of course, the club would let him go. Probably, there was no such offer.
I think Alexander is in his place. He plays consistently, I think he likes it there, he has a status at Monaco. He's confident, and he plays with all the coaches, which is also a big plus. I'm not really sure if he needs to change anything in this situation. A pretty good club, constantly playing in European competitions, with finances.
"Pinyaev, Glushenkov stopped at some level"
— Do you see any of the young Russian players who can reach at least Golovin's level?
— I am not in favor of singling out anyone now. Some players started being talked about very early as rising stars, and now they are not on the football field, they are sitting in the reserves. The biggest problem with our young players is that they, having a certain talent, pay too much attention to the hype around them in the press.: "He's going to go there, he's the best, they're waiting for him there..." It doesn't seem to work very well on them.
But the problem, of course, is not with the journalists, but with the players themselves. If you're really talented, you should get a little better every day. Progress without stopping. And a number of players stopped at some level.
"Who do you mean?"
— Many people were very praised, for example, Pinyaev at Lokomotiv. He doesn't add any more Silences, he plays the same way he played... Now we have three young players, whom I wish to move forward only: Batrakov, Glebov and Kislyak. They are a trio of good talents, but then everything depends on them and their attitude to football. Their mentality should tell them to do more every day than the coach asks, to be greedy for victories. God has given you — go ahead! And I'm afraid to say what will happen.
— Karpin said that the current national team is stronger than the one that was in 2021, based on the level of talent. But what's the point of talking about it after four years of excommunication from international competitions, when there's no way to verify it?
— You can say whatever you want. When the official matches begin, and they will begin one day anyway, I believe in it, then the picture will be clear. But I wouldn't say that about the last matches. The most depressing thing was the level of the game.
— And Karpin liked the game with Mali for some reason.
— Some people like it, I don't.
— If our clubs returned to European competitions now, would there have been a failure first?
— It will be very difficult. Maybe some club will perform a miracle, but it's not easy to come back after a long absence. Everyone has gone very, very far ahead during this time.
"Krasnodar's strategy with a minimum of substitutes is clear to me"
— Who do you like the most in the RPL game?
— Krasnodar. Balanced, with a good selection of players in all lines. The most important thing is that the team's players have become tactically very disciplined, and this is definitely Murad Musayev's merit. They defend well after losing the ball — either the whole team immediately starts pressing in the other half of the field, or competently runs back. Krasnodar performs both attacking and defensive actions equally well, and this applies to everyone. No one violates game discipline.
Besides, the Bulls are physically good. Everyone's level is quite stable and high. Previously, they paid a lot of attention to extraneous things — refereeing mistakes, quarrels with other teams. Now they are not dispersed and concentrate only on football. And this is the result of the great work of the head coach.
Krasnodar does not play the ball from the goalkeeper, which many teams do, claiming that they are allegedly playing attacking football. No! Musayev's team has taken a step forward: when there is freedom, they start playing from the goalkeeper, when there is not, on the contrary, they switch to long passes, considering how Cordoba keeps the ball. And it makes it easier for them to attack. At the same time, how many goals did they score after the opponent plays the ball from the goalkeeper without having defenders with the appropriate technical skills, and Krasnodar takes it away and punishes them for it.
— How correct do you think the Bulls' personnel strategy is with a minimum of substitutes who can replace and strengthen the game?
— This strategy is clear to me. Yes, there is a risk. But there is still such a level of participation of each player in almost every match that it unites the team. When an application is inflated, there are a lot of dissatisfied people, because they don't even know when they will enter the field. This discourages the players themselves and spoils the atmosphere — there is no unity anymore. Twenty players per application was always enough for me. There are so many matches in England that two dozen players, of course, will not be enough. But in our country, twenty is normal.
— You said about Musaev, but how do you like Sergey Semak's work?
— Wonderful job. He won six championships! Everyone says that anyone can win at Zenit. Try to win when there is such tension and it is necessary to unite so many different people so that they play the same football. How do you explain to the Brazilians, of whom there are many in the team, that they must work not only with the ball, but also without the ball? And he's been doing it, and for a long time.
It doesn't work that way, that they bought players, put them on, and they give results because so much was paid for them. Semak is doing a good, great job. He doesn't have a single conflict with the players, at least it has leaked out, although it would seem that there is such competition for a place in the squad and every time there are so many potentially unhappy people from those who did not get into it. This team is very difficult!
— Are you surprised by the spring rush of Alexander Sobolev, who scores in every match and pulls Zenit along in many ways?
— I wouldn't say that he pulls Zenit, but he scores. Sobolev is such a player that if he scores, then he is a factor on the field. And if not... He practically does not participate in combinations, dribbling, or defensive actions. Finishing is his trump card, he has to score, because that's what he goes on the field for. While he's doing this, he'll be playing in the starting lineup. As soon as he stops, a player will appear in his place, making passes, circling, running back. That's all.
— In your opinion, in whose favor is the exchange of Igor Diveev for Luciano Gonda? And was he surprised?
— I was surprised. But I won't give preference to anyone yet. Whoever is higher in the table probably did a better job.
— And how surprising are the constant calls of Douglas Santos and Luis Enrique to the Brazilian national team a couple of months before the 2026 World Cup? And does the Zenit captain constantly play in the starting lineup?
— At first it was a surprise. We thought it was like watching — the coach always wants to watch a lot of players live. And now, closer to the championship, it looks like they can stay in the cage. Ancelotti is an experienced person and sees what kind of player he needs and in what position. They are good, talented players. There are a lot of Brazilians around the world, but if they are chosen, it will show their level.
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