Lucescu’s big mistake: how did Antyukh end up in Dynamo and what awaits him in Zara

Dynamo means big expectations and big disappointments. Going there for many in Ukraine is the pinnacle of a career, but many, having climbed this peak, are kittens from it as inexperienced tourists, with abrasions, a tarnished reputation and a feeling that it is better not to talk about this life experience.

Gromov, Gladky, Fedorchuk – not to mention the “import errors” of Irimie, Zhermuny, Filimonov, Mamedov, Otalvaro and Moreno. This is a list that is hard to get into but easy to please. Those who have seen less in football and remember more in recent years will put a hitherto little-known name Denis Antyukh at the head of the list of “Dynamo disappointments”.

Someone from the insiders even managed to tell that Mircea Lucescu allegedly himself admitted that he made a gross mistake with this footballer. Although Denis is not the biggest failure in terms of the cost-expectation ratio, now, when he leaves for Zarya, they talk about him more than, for example, about Kadiri, Kargbo or Benito. But in vain.

We are not going to defend or blame anyone. Let’s just analyze the “Antyukh phenomenon” and try to understand how Denis ended up in Dynamo, whether he could play there and what awaits him in Zara and in general in the future.

Who is this Antyukh?

The 25-year-old midfielder is originally from Akhtyrka, in the local Neftyanik and began his career. It so happened that a rich club under the wing of Ukrnafta relied on experienced visiting craftsmen for many years. But just in those years when Antyukh graduated from the UVK-Metal school and was returning home, changes in the giant company fought off at the club’s work. Akhtyrsky Neftyanik-Ukrnafta began to be recruited with simpler, younger players. And then there was the head coach Vladimir Knysh, who was not too lazy to tinker with the local guys – in a word, Antyukh was among those who used their chance.

For Akhtyrchan (quote transfermarkt) he played 50 matches, scoring one goal and giving three assists. In the summer of 2018, when Ukrnafta finally closed its football sinecure, the young guy signed a contract with Kolos Kolov. The fifth team of the First League already wanted to play in the Premier League and a year later they went there with silver medals.

Antyukh did not always get into the squad, under serious competition he went on loan to the Balkans (15 matches – 2 goals, 1 assist). However, Kostyshin kept the fast guy in mind, returned and received serious benefits. An interesting moment: Denis played 48 matches for KK and scored 11 goals (5 goals + 6 assists). However, he “swinged” in the Premier League, having spent the best matches there.

How did Antyukh get in the eyes of Lucescu?

Denis had several benefit performances in Kolos. The brightest matches were:

• On July 26, 2020, Kolos defeated Dnipro-1 in the playoff match for entering the European Cups, and Denis scored 2 + 1 in the “goal + pass” system;
• On December 12, 2020, Kolos played a 2-2 draw with Dynamo himself on the road, Antyukh with a rebound from Mikolenko saved the Kovalevites from defeat.

There is a suspicion that already in December of the year before last, Lucescu seriously wrote down this name in his notebook. In addition, Kolos regularly plays sparring matches with geographical neighbors. So everyone who plays there is quite familiar with the giants based in the capital.

What did Antyukh lack in Dynamo?

Here is what his coach Vladimir Knysh, who knows Denis from Akhtyrka, said about Antyukha:

There are two important quotes here. First:

“Often we shout from the bench -“ Hit it, give it back! ”, And he pulls the ball, goes to the wall of the defenders. To be honest, Antyukh’s decisions are difficult to understand and calculate not only for his opponents, but also for us. But, we spent a lot of nerves on him, we quickly realized that this was his advantage. Over time, I became convinced that Denis does everything by intuition. It was difficult for him to understand the schemes on the field, the areas where to run, but intuitively he understood where to run.

What is it about? It’s about the lack of a deep tactical school. No, this is not a verdict yet – there were “runners” in Dynamo who achieved excellent sports results. However, in order for a conditional player with good speed data, but without fine technique and tactical “sense” to be successful, paradoxically, the highest qualification of the entire team is needed. So that his protracted raids have someone to insure behind, so that his crosses and crosses after simplified actions on the flank are ready to be closed by driving players. And in this Dynamo needs Tsygankov and Verbich – players who can beat, break through. With this, they compensate for Garmash or Besedin at the forefront of the attack, go and figure it out, which is harder.

Second:

“I had to work a lot on his technique. They taught Denis to play with his head, to make decisions faster and more correctly, to open up correctly. His progress has been remarkable. Well, the health car compensated for the shortcomings – it seemed that Antyukh could run not two, but four halves ”

What does this say? About the preponderance of physical data over technical, possibly tactical.

That is, roughly speaking, Antyukh is a player for a counterattacking team, for a middle peasant or an outsider in the league, but not for a leader who needs to combine for a long time and possess the ball.

Such conclusions suggest themselves, you can draw your own.

Summing up what we heard, saw and read, we answer the question of this section in one word – class. There was not enough class to start playing in Dynamo.

And what did Antyukh play in Dynamo?

Four games in more than a year – but not a full season. He started the match with Desna in the UPL from the start (debut on August 22, 2021, victory 4:0), left from the first minutes in the cup match with FC Mariupol (victory 2:1 away), then twice came on as substitutes with Chernomorets and Minai ( 6:1 and 2:0 respectively). In total, in four matches with Antyukh Dynamo won with a total score of 14:2. What?!..

But at the same time, Denis himself, as part of the Kiev team, did not distinguish himself with a single effective action in official matches, did not play a single match in full and played 164 minutes. Phenomenal statistics – after all, it is also well explained. Antyukh played when the leaders were resting – in passing matches of the championship and the cup, or after exhausting European cup games in the middle of the week.

This, alas, is typical for a rotation player, a substitute, who is released for the last minutes or is placed when the main guys are resting or recovering.

So, is everything with Antyukh?

And then – interesting. Even in past seasons, the number of players who came from the lower leagues reached 33-40% in individual matches. This summer, about 50 players arrived in the Premier League from the First and Second Leagues. Even such venerable coaches as Vernydub, Grigorchuk and Sharan had no doubts when it was necessary to sign contracts with yesterday’s guys from the PFL.

In the modern Premier League, people like Antyukh are the norm, not the exception. It was they who shouldered the responsibility for the championship, which is held to the accompaniment of air raid alerts. And now the level of the UPL has approached their level – those who, at best, would have sat in the reserve behind the legionnaires before. These are the harsh laws of life. Or, in short, life dictates its harsh laws to us.

There is only one question – did Antyukh make a mistake with the team and did van Leeuwen appreciate the complexity of the task? The Dutchman plays Michels football – 4-3-3, peppy flanks, technical midfielders, as well as a striker capable of a feat. If earlier the flanks of Zorya were Kabaev and Christian, technical and fast guys, now a guy from the First League can play on the left, whose main advantage is his “health car” and the ability to run back three halves in a row.

If Patrick van Leeuwen can simplify tactical tasks on the flank, if he adapts the players to constantly open up for passes and crosses by Antyukh, it will be possible to get something from this. But in general, there is a certain out of sync in style and tasks, and this makes it more interesting how Denis Zarya will join the game.

* * *

Now a little about the title. “Lucescu’s big mistake” is not really about Antyukh. It is right to take such guys, inexpensive, but with brightly convex qualities. In the case of Antyukh, his main skill is physics and speed. Well, well, Dynamo and Lucescu can forgive themselves this mistake, but guess they and Denis progress faster – it would be a surprise of surprises, the former first league player to be transferred to the Champions League.

The real mistakes are legionnaires with a salary of 30-50 thousand euros, which did not always go into the double. And Antyukh is a lottery ticket, completely inexpensive, but warming the soul with the possibility of winning. This was once acquired by Dynamo by inviting Oleg Gusev from the Kyiv Arsenal. The former striker of Frunzenets-League-99 did not immediately become that Gusev, who was called a master. From forwards he moved to wide back, then found attraction in the role of fullback.

Seek and you will be rewarded. Perhaps Kabaev will play a left midfielder in Dynamo worthy of Shepelev. Perhaps some Rudavsky from Metallist 1925, Didyk from Rukh or Pryadun from Metallist will one day take “Antyukh’s vacancy”. And for this you should not hate – this is a workflow. Once upon a time, Maslov, Sevidov, Lobanovsky did not hesitate to take players from the lower leagues. And they, the former stars of the Enakievo Miner, the Vinnitsa Niva or the Cherkasy Dnieper, then thundered on the football fields of Europe and the world.

One thing is needed: courage, creative ingenuity and pedagogical talent of the coach. You should have heard how you assessed future stars when they were still “nobody”. Blinding the lady from Eliza Doolittle is interesting in its own way, and playing Pygmalion is the fate of coaches who do not yet have the funds for a momentary purchase of Mbappe, Neymar and Haaland.