Everton defender – about former partners in Dynamo and English fans
Defender of Everton and the national team of Ukraine Vitaly Mikolenko named three Dynamo Kyiv players who, in his opinion, can play in the English Premier League, and also assessed the debut season Viktor Tsygankov in Girona.
“Shapa [Шапаренко] – the first, Buschan Zhora – the second. Wan, probably. Given that he is very young. Plus, I really like his game. Shaparenko will now pick up after the injury and you will see – he will become even stronger.
“Tsygankov? It wasn’t Girona who opened it. He is just a top player. He shows the same good and stable game as in Dynamo. It’s just that in Dynamo, when, conditionally, in one season he scored 15 goals, and in the next – 14, everyone starts writing and saying: “That’s it, Vitya was blown away.” Before that, Vitya is a legend, a top football player. And then – Vitya was blown away. And look at the statistics, you see that it is only growing. And now in Girona, he shows that he is a top footballer.”
“I had a similar situation at Dynamo, when Lucescu came, I played a central defender for the first six months. And I also had to read the comments, I still read them then: “That’s it, Mikolenko was blown away, he doesn’t score a goal, he doesn’t give assists.” I am aware that people do not understand what position I play: not as an extreme defender, but as a central one. I have completely different tasks on the field.
According to Mykolenko, English fans are different from Ukrainian ones, and he has practically stopped reading comments about his game.
“English fans? In Ukraine, as it was: you played an unsuccessful match for Dynamo or the national team – you have 100 negative messages in your Instagram direct. There is no such thing in England. Yes, such comments happened, but perhaps I began to treat it easier, or pay less attention to it. There is something that the English fans either love you very much or they don’t like you very much. But, thank God, I haven’t had that yet.”
Note that Mikolenko did not go with the team to a training camp in Switzerland. The press service of Everton said that players involved in international matches or recovering from injuries will miss the training camp.
Last season, Mikolenko played 35 games for Everton without scoring. The defender missed the end of the campaign due to injury, but played three games for the Ukrainian national team in June.
Everton will host Fulham in the first round of the new Premier League season on 12 August.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
