Sport Arena names the symbolic team of the next UPL round of the 2023/24 season, as well as the best in individual nominations, which are determined by our website for each round
On the website SportArena.com – teams of all rounds of the Ukrainian Premier League 2023/24. Who made it into the top 11 this time and won in individual categories?
Goalkeeper – Kirill Fesyun (Kolos)
FC Alexandria played well – created a number of good chances and shot on target six times in Kolos. But Fesyun showed both lightning-fast reaction and reliability in the goalkeeping component. Before the season, we were worried how Kolos would replace the irreplaceable Volynets, but thanks to the high-quality work of the coaching staff and Kernozenko personally, Kirill reached a new level of his skills.
Right back – Valery Luchkevich (Kolos)
Scoring against your former team is always exciting, especially if it’s the winning goal. Having recovered from a serious injury, having found himself in such a well-coordinated team as Kolos (where you still need to be able to break into the first team), Luchkevich scored a magnificent goal in Alexandria, catching the ball on his left foot, immediately after the hosts thought they had fought back. after the corner. Throughout the match, Valery covered the entire flank in his style. Did a lot of grunt work, especially when the guests were in the minority and there were more games without the ball.
Central defender – Eduard Sarapiy (SK Dnepr-1)
For Sarapia, Dynamo is a special opponent. It was with his goal against the Kiev team that the fantastic season of Dnepr-1 under Kucher began, ending with sensational silver medals. This time Eduard did not score, but together with Svatk he played at the highest level. If his partner took the lead by reading the game and staying ahead of the threat, then Sarapiy was maximally involved in single combats. He is one of the best on the tour in terms of purely defensive indicators – tackling, rebounding, interception, fighting for the ball.
Central defender – Yaroslav Rakitskyy (Shakhtar)
LNZ carried the defense of the Miners, and we call Rakitsky. Is this even legal? Yes. The first thesis: most of the failures were in the zone between the right and right central defenders, we will not undertake to judge whether it was because of the mistakes of Konoplya and Bondar, or because of such a strong counterpart as Khoblenko. The second thesis: Yaroslav played reliably, made virtually no mistakes, and repeatedly interrupted serves and crosses. The third thesis: in the passing game, Rakitsky is still very strong, at the level of Matvienko or stronger. He flawlessly directed the direction of Shakhtar’s play through passes at different distances and made a mistake only once (when Neverton lost the ball and launched a reverse attack with a shot on target from 20 meters away). The fact that the Donetsk team still kept a clean sheet in Srny’s debut match at the head of Shakhtar was largely due to his long-term defensive partner.
Left back – Ivan Dibango (Krivbass)
This was far from the best tour for left-backs – even the most spectacular of them, like Vantukh from Zarya, had a “skeleton” in the back of their closet in the form of a penalty brought out of nowhere. Therefore, once again we will pay tribute to the stability of Dibango, who literally vacuumed his left flank, performed a large amount of work in advancing the ball and participating in team multi-moves. In several of the most acute attacks of the Krivoy Rogians, it was Ivan who participated in the initial stages.
Central midfielder – Evgeniy Pastukh (Rukh)
We don’t yet know how they do it, but Rukh once again proves that he can take almost any player from the depths of his youth squads and bring him into the first club team in a short period. Little was known about Pastukh six months ago, but now he is a completely stable starting player next to Sapuga and Edson. In Rivne, Evgeniy, who is traditionally not shy about showing off his long-range strike, scored two goals in a completely different style. In one case, he completed a serve from a set piece, in another, he accelerated a quick attack from the depths of the field, which he himself completed after the rebound.
Right midfielder – Oleksandr Zubkov (Shakhtar)
We would call Zubkov a loser of the tour, because at the end he was catastrophically unlucky – either he missed the goalpost, then missed the goal, or hit the only player on the line – only four shots without a goal. However, in terms of the dynamics of action, Shakhtar’s involvement in combination play and play-by-play, this is a top match from Alexander. Zubkov gave two assists – to Sican and Kelsey, which compensated for unsuccessful attempts to score personally. We see that Sasha has confidence, his game is rushing and rushing, so the goals will come.
Left midfielder – Beni Makuana (Polesie)
The Zhytomyr team in Poltava had such a team victory that it’s hard to even single out just one. It will be precisely the Congolese Makuana – that trump card of Polesie, to which Vorskla has not found any opposition. Beni was not lazy about diving deep for the ball; it was he who fought when Krushinsky went into the free corridor and earned a penalty for the first goal. And Makuana himself, having skillfully played with Arielson, scored his team’s important second goal immediately after the break.
Forward – Andrey Shtogrin (Chernomorets)
The match against FC Minaj was won by Shtogrin with all possible help from the rest of the team. Without resorting to playful punches, this was truly a strong match from Andrey. An aesthetically perfect first goal at the beginning of the match (see the “Goal of the Tour” nomination), a cool finish after Badibang’s pass, and then an insane assist on Kuzik’s move – all three goals took place with the direct participation of Shtogrin. But there were still moments when he sharpened things up and could score! This is one of the strongest performances of the tour hero this season.
Forward – Eduardo Guerrero (Zarya)
Well, finally, the Guerrero who conquered the UPL last season! Eduardo’s role in the victory over Obolon is difficult to overestimate. It was the Panamanian who opened the scoring in the 5th minute after a subtle pass from Michin, and before the break he brought the Luhansk team back into the game, equalizing the score after two accurate shots from the Kiev team (we note here Vantukh’s high-quality assist). Guerrero, technical and soft with the ball, is a big trump card for Kriventsov. There are no other strikers like him in our championship.
Forward – Maxim Zaderaka (Krivbass)
Before the UPL had time to recognize Zaderaka as the best player of the month of September, Maxim made a strong bid for recognition in October. This player played the game against his ex-teammates from Metalist 1925 at a high level. He opened the scoring after a high-quality pass from the flank by Tatarkov, took part in the second assist, which was completed by Kozhushko with a pass from Debelko, and then he himself managed to finish off after Monday’s juicy shot.
The merry fellow and prankster Maksimov gave Dnepr-1 the most pragmatic, ascetic game possible. Thanks to this, having hit the Dynamo goal with an early strike from Gutsulyak, the guests strictly followed the coaching instructions and fully implemented the plan for this difficult trip. This is less impressive than Kuchera’s 3:0 last season, but confirms the team’s fighting ability and manageability under the new coaching staff.
- Analysis from the All-Ukrainian Association of Football Coaches – here.
There were enough top substitutions in this round: look at the goals of Kvasnitsa from Rukh or Shastal from Polesie (who also earned the Vorsk team a sending off). But there is an obvious winner. After a cool period under Jovicevic under van Leeuwen, Kelce found himself in a real mess. He came on as a substitute for less than half an hour, and when he once got a chance in the starting lineup, he was replaced in the first half (he became a victim of Rakitsky’s removal, which led to a castling in defense). Srna’s debut is also the rebirth of Kevin. The Venezuelan finished the match against LNZ with two goals, making a strong bid for the starting lineup.
- Sport Arena statistics: 8 league matches, 2 goals.
The 19-year-old Lions midfielder scored two goals against Veres of different tastes: the third for his team after Talles’ corner, the fourth by supporting a rapid multi-step move. Even earlier, Pastukh was remembered for his rather bright game against opponents even of the caliber of Shakhtar, and now he has made a big contribution to the positive result for Rukh.
- Sport Arena statistics: 8 league matches, 2 goals.
Sometimes it’s empty, sometimes it’s thick – if in the last round the legionnaires didn’t distinguish themselves in anything in the UPL, then this time we have a pleasant and large choice. For example, Arielson and Makuana played a beautiful goal in Poltava for Polesie, Talles broke the scoring silence by assisting Shepherd’s goal from a corner (this was when Rukh won in Rivne), Yago, on the contrary, scored for Veres against the Lviv team, Ieda and Badibanga were given top-ranked absolutely assists in the match of Chernomorets with the Minai, Kelsey, with his double, ensured the Pitmen’s defeat of LNZ… But our laureate is the Panamanian Guerrero, because his two goals were defining (opened the scoring and equalized at an important moment).
- Sport Arena statistics: 7 league matches, 4 goals.
When Iede and Badibanga played this exquisite combination, they had dozens of options for the development of events. They took the harder path. Samson Shtogrin’s cross could have been annoyingly screwed up, but he effectively closed it with his heel. Del Piero and Mbappe would accept the winger Chernomorets into their club!
The best player of this round was the football player who scored two goals and gave an assist in the match with Minaj.
- Sport Arena statistics: 11 league matches, 4 goals, 1 assist.
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.
