"Our fans need to be patient a little more"

Last season, "Baltika" became the main opening of the RPL season, finishing the championship in sixth place. During the offseason, many key players left Kaliningrad, but even in such circumstances, the team retained its corporate identity. In the ninth round, "Baltika" gave a real fight to the reigning champion and, if not for the goalkeeper's mistakes, could have counted on at least a draw (2:3). "" In an interview with "Izvestia" and "Sport-Express", the club's head coach Andrei Talalaev noted that it was not necessary to explain the failure only by Evgeny Latyshon's mistakes, and also named the positive aspects that would allow the team to fight for a place in the leading group again.

""We were determined that Zenit needed to take away points from such a team""

— What did you feel immediately after the final whistle of the "Zenit" match? Pride in the team that didn't break down after 0-2 and gave battle to the champion? Annoyance over blunders? Understanding that the opponent is objectively stronger?

— I definitely wasn't proud, because I understood that we could have played better. And I didn't experience a global disorder either.

- why?

— Until the 20th minute, I saw that "Baltika" was playing unusual football. We did our best to turn the tide of the meeting. In principle, we initially set up the idea that we should take points from this "Zenit". And after the final whistle, I had mixed feelings. Perhaps one word or definition cannot describe them.

— Is the result fair?

"Regardless of the score, my staff at Baltika and I are used to playing to the end." Literally until the last second. We instill this mentality in our players as well. It's clear that they were upset because they didn't score any points at all. At least the match could have been drawn. Especially in the end, after our second goal, we had two chances.

— After the final whistle, you made a small comment.: "Before the break, especially in the first half of the half, we acted so cowardly that it became uncomfortable." What is the reason? Are the guys in a suitcase mood or bowing to the authority of the reigning champions?

— I think we need to take responsibility for ourselves, and not just shift it onto the players. We made mistakes in several positions in the starting lineup. Everyone is now attacking the Latvian, but we discussed his form and pregame cycle with the goalkeeper coach, analyzed it. Evgeny turned out to be overly tense and concentrated. Let's take the blame, the coaches. "We decided that another goalkeeper, Egor Lyubakov, should play against Zenit." But in the end, they made a choice in favor of Zhenya. The same goes for Murid.

"What's wrong with him?"

"The doctor told us that he will be able to play against Zenit." Although Aiman missed recovery training after the match with "Fakel" on an artificial field, he had pain in the front of his thigh. He really wanted to be on the field, as we have serious competition in the middle line. But even by the level of martial arts, by the quality of the fight, it became clear that Murid, alas, was not ready (the Moroccan was replaced by Ivan Belikov during the break. — Ed.). So it was us, the coaches, who initially made the wrong personnel steps. What's the point of blaming the guys then? We need to ask ourselves more questions.

— And when did you decide that a Latvian boy would play, and not Lyubakov? On the day of the match itself?

- no. Three days before the meeting with the St. Petersburg team, they determined the goalkeeper and discussed the candidates. Yes, we do have the last interview with the coaches on the day of the match. But it's extremely rare for us to change the decisions we made the day before.

— Then why did you choose a Latvian? Did you expect him to be overly motivated against his former club?

— It concerned not only him, but the whole team. We understand that in order to defeat the reigning champion, it is not enough just to play well. We need to give our best match, give our best. Well, luck should come along too. Unfortunately, that was not the case that day...

— After the match, you supported the Latvian with a post on one of the social networks.

— I posted a normal, human photo of us. And he wrote that the whole team was losing and winning. And the captain, Sasha Filin, who is recovering, left a very good comment in our group. They say that the mistakes of goalkeepers and defenders are noticeable to everyone. "Baltika" surpassed the last four opponents, including "Zenit", in terms of xG, but the attackers did not score. For some reason, there is much less talk about this. In my opinion, that's the right idea. I think we will overcome the difficulties calmly. Fortunately, there are three weeks ahead to recover both emotionally and physically.

— What was the setting for the start of the match?

"If you noticed, "Zenit", as a rule, tries to crush the opponent in the first 15-20 minutes — by standards, by the number of created chances. Therefore, in the opening segment, we asked the guys to play more simply in order to eliminate mistakes in their half of the field. But it's not that simple! Before Glushenkov's goal, we had eight one—touch passes, all going nowhere...

— As a result, we conceded already in the 9th minute...

"Varatynov started Zenit's scoring combination." There was no pressure — Sergey could calmly handle the ball and make passes both to save and to develop the attack. But he made the simplest decision, trying to roll the ball through his half of the field with a one-touch pass.

"Dad asked me to kick the goal. That's how the goal turned out"

Football player Timofey Marinkin — about the difficult start of the Moscow Dynamo in the new season and the upcoming match with Zenit

"Douglas' step on Mendel's head is a foul due to negligence"

— When Douglas Santos stepped on Mendel's head in the penalty area of St. Petersburg, it looked creepy. How could Andrey continue playing the game?

— I'm not discussing refereeing, although I'm here... How many times have we seen different cards for careless fouls? But here, one football player just steps on the other's head with spikes. We've reviewed the episode. Yes, the Brazilian did not see Mendel at that second... And we have already heard the wording of the judges: stepping on the head due to carelessness is nothing, we continued to play. And Andrey is an iron guy, he stayed on the field and continued to do the required amount of work.

— So for you, the action of Douglas Santos is a foul?

— Yes, a foul due to negligence. And we have already seen a lot of such examples.

— Why did they change Maxim Petrov, perhaps the key player in the current "Baltic", during the break?

— We have carried out several substitutions. They are also related to tactics in order to switch from one scheme to another. In addition, it should be understood that Max Petrov and Mingiyan Beveev did not have a full rest before this season.

- why?

— We played for the Russian national team in June, we only have a week left for vacation and recovery. And in fact, the guys from one championship immediately moved on to another. This greatly affects the quality of their game. Therefore, I would share a portion of criticism here. We need to talk about the work of our staff, and, probably, about the long training camps of the national team.

"There's a player at Zenit today that you've looked at and understood.": "Space"?

— "Cosmos" is not. But before the match, we drew the attention of our guys to two aspects. It was said that Glushenkov and Sobolev are in very good shape now. Probably, everyone in Russia knows that Glushenkov's left leg must be blocked and be ready to strike.

— What is the danger of Sobolev now?

"Because of our game, we only get fast defensive players to Baltika." Before the match, I talked to one agent and told him, "Sobolev won't run away from our central defenders." And his goal once again emphasized a highly intelligent understanding of a specific game situation. Sasha realized that he would not leave Ghassam, and made the only right decision — he struck from afar. Technically, I didn't execute the shot very well. But Eugene (The Latvian. "Unfortunately, he slipped, which, of course, helped the Zenit striker."

So we knew who to expect threats from. It's unpleasant that you haven't done your job somewhere.

— I thought you would also name Luis Enrique. It seems that when the Brazilian wants to, he is able to beat anyone one-on-one in the RPL.

— Tell me, was there any sharpness after his feints? Did he hit from zero angles? As for his goal, our players showed too much diligence. Sometimes reconfiguration is not good. The guys took their opponent too seriously.

— So why did Luis Enrique score in that episode?

— We have two defenders who went to block Sobolev, and three defenders who ran to block Luis Enrique at the same time and interfered with each other. All because of that extra diligence. It's just that when switching from personal defense to zone defense, the central defender plays a very important role. And it turned out that Eduardo Anderson was trained for this role all pre-season. And now Loris Muyokolo has come to us and is actually playing four consecutive matches in the center of defense.

You see, it's hard for the whole team to rebuild after two years of successful work. Didn't we somehow take sixth place with our staff? But now the transition to the "zone" is quite difficult. If, from the point of view of standards, this is already paying some dividends, then we still make simple mistakes.

Krasnodar from above: Spartak rushed in pursuit of the RPL leader

The victory over Zenit brought the red and white to a clean second place.

"We lost five leaders in seven months"

— And what is the way out of the situation?

— I can tell our Kaliningrad fans: we need to be patient a little more. It will take some time. But, I repeat, it is the central defender who plays the key role here. It is important not only how he acts, but also how he manages the process and partners. """""Rubin", ""Fakel", "Spartak" goals are a consequence of the fact that "Baltika" is developing, moving on and learning a slightly different football according to a slightly different system.

It's just that when a well—played team, acting through discipline, structure and interaction, loses five leaders in seven months who played more than 50% of the matches — Sausia, Pryakhina, Andrade, Borisko, Titkova - you shouldn't expect that the quality will remain at the same level. That's why, after the test match with "Krasnodar", I noticed that this year we have slightly different tasks ahead of us. Now the newcomers have joined us on the flag — both Golenkov and Muyokolo. I am sure that with every training day, the usual gaming connections will be developed. But once again, it takes time. Don't forget that there are also young guys who still need to get used to the requirements of "Baltika".

— Then what can you add to the asset of the team in the match against "Zenit"?

— I would highlight the way Shiltsov held his first meeting in the starting lineup in the RPL: he was immediately noted for his effective action. And how quickly Golenkov adapted to us — the third effective action in two matches. I would also say that Pospelov, Ryadno and Belikov are starting to play more professionally. For me, one of the main criteria in evaluating a match is the ratio of the chances we create and the opponent's chances. So, when the guys I mentioned above are present on the field, our xG index is getting higher and higher. Yes, we still don't have enough performing skills to implement it. But, I repeat, I am glad that we have such chances and are creating them.

"What's bothering you?"

— So far, our problem is the key transmissions and their timing. That is, we didn't run and fight any less. But from the point of view of combinatorics, correctness and quality of passes behind the back, we lost a lot. Do not forget about luck, and, of course, about the implementation. "I think, according to the xG indicators that Baltika is currently demonstrating, we might even have been in the top three last season." But now there is a bit of a lack of skill and fart.