"If we had fewer injuries, the team's results would be better"

Samara Krylia Sovetov was one of the first RPL clubs to come out of vacation and go to winter training camps, where they began to prepare for the second part of the season. So far, Volzhans are in 12th place in the Russian championship standings with a margin of two points from the zone of transitional matches and five from the zone of direct relegation to the first league. In addition, Magomed Adiev's team continues to fight for the Russian Cup, where they will meet with Orenburg in the Path of the Regions in early March. In an interview with Izvestia, Krylia defender Sergey Bozhin explained what the team needs to improve in order to protect itself from relegation, and spoke about the reasons for the autumn failures.

"I approached the collection without excess weight"

— How did you spend your vacation?

— With my family. We flew to Thailand, and after that I trained in Samara, preparing for training camps.

— Are you in optimal condition for the training camp?

- yes. A month of vacation is enough. It wasn't difficult to keep in shape — judging by the medical check-up, I approached the first training camp without extra pounds of weight.

— What do the Wings need to improve in order to improve their results in the championship?

— First of all, physical and tactical training, teamwork of the team will be important. Therefore, it is very important that all training sessions take place without injury. I think our failures in the first part of the season were mostly influenced by injuries — they knocked us down at some point. A lot of guys dropped out, including me. I really want there to be no injuries, so that everyone is in the ranks. Due to this, the bench will be longer, and the total number of players will be much wider. We need to give our best in games. But I hope that we will not fight for survival at all, but will rise much higher in the table.

— Will the winter training camps be extremely important, given the fact that during the summer offseason the team was radically rebuilt and trained very little in the current squad before the start of the championship?

— At the time of perestroika, I especially want more time for training camps, especially in the summer. Our team was already being recruited during the second training camp. Although even in these conditions we started well in the championship. But then there was a recession, which, as I said, was due to injuries. In an insufficiently played team, I especially want there to be fewer of them. To keep everyone in line. I think if we had fewer injuries, Krylia Sovetov's results would have been better.

— In the last year, there have been many rumors that the budget of the Wings of the Soviets will be significantly reduced. Have you felt more austere living conditions for the team during this time?

— No, I wouldn't say that. Everything is at a professional level. We have everything. The team doesn't need anything. The club has managed to create conditions for preparing for the games. Everything is at the Premier League level.

— Your previous arrival at Krylia Sovetov in 2020-2022 took place at the height of the era when the backbone of the team consisted of former Chertanovo players led by head coach Igor Osinkin. What differences did you see in the work of Magomed Adiev, who replaced him, when you returned to Samara before the current season?

— Tactics have changed — we switched to playing with three central defenders. And in general, everything is new. Globally, specialists have different approaches to tactics, the training process, and the requirements on the field.

— How have the requirements changed for you personally? For example, are you less likely to attack?

— When I play the most central defender in the top three, then, of course, I don't attack at all. When I play as an extreme central defender, I need to connect to the attack.

"We played quite openly with Krasnodar"

— Based on the matches with the championship leaders in the first part of the season, who do you see as the favorite in the fight for the RPL gold?

— Krasnodar gives the impression of a team striving for a second consecutive championship. We had the most unsuccessful games with him — 0:6 and 0:5. It's also hard with the other teams from the top of the table. For example, with Spartak on the road, even though it is currently in sixth place and slightly behind the leaders. It was a very difficult first half against Lokomotiv. But then he had such a streak that he was failing in the second half. And we got into this period, as a result of which we drew the match (2-2), losing 0:2. In principle, it is difficult with all the teams from the top — skilled football players play there.

— What do you associate with such two brutal defeats against Krasnodar with a total score of 0:11?

— Because we played quite openly somewhere in the first match, when 0 burned down at home.:6. And if we take the second match, which we lost 0-5 away in November, then we didn't have many people on the bench at that time, because injuries were very active at that moment.

— Despite the fact that Krylia plays quite well.

— Well, I wouldn't say it's closed, judging by the number of goals in our matches.

— Okay, I'll restate it: not such an attacking style of play to act as the first number against Krasnodar.

— I don't know why we did that in that match. Maybe Krasnodar allowed us to play openly to some extent. He didn't press us at the beginning of the game. Then he caught us making mistakes. And we've already cracked up — this shouldn't be happening.

— Do you feel that all the shortcomings of the Wings in the first part of the season will be eliminated by spring?

— Of course, I hope that we will improve the game. All the partners who were injured have recovered. There will be more football players, more resistance in training. And I expect that everything will turn out fine for us in the spring if all the players are in the ranks.