“Let Gatiyatulin prove us wrong about him one way or another” – ex-director of Traktor

Former director “Tractors” Andrey Balandin said that he would be happy to Anvara Gatiyatulina if he takes the position of head coach of the new club.

Gatiyatullin was dismissed from the post of head coach of Traktor in October 2023. The media name him among the specialists capable of leading Siberia in the new season.

— Gatiyatulin likes the work of a head coach, and if Siberia thinks that it needs such a specialist, then for God’s sake. We will only be happy for him. Let Gatiyatulin prove us wrong about him one way or another. In one place, it didn’t work, but in another, there was a change of scenery, different staff. Maybe good assistants will influence him differently.

Although I think defensive hockey is the stone age and no one is interested in it. It is designed for teams where there are not enough hockey players and they need to fill a hole. This type of hockey manifests itself due to a lack of playing and coaching resources. They play “1-4” in the hope of having a strong goalkeeper: they made fewer mistakes, scored one or two goals and won. As a great coach said, it’s about picking up the crumbs from the banquet table. But now people realize that attacking hockey is much more interesting. New large palaces have appeared in Novosibirsk, Omsk, St. Petersburg and are under construction in Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. People want spectacle and offensive play. And the future belongs to young people. If young people are placed in “1 to 4” programs, then they will not develop,” Balandin said, as quoted by RB Sport.

Traktor reached the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup by defeating Salavat Yulaev (4-2) and Dynamo Moscow (4-0) in the playoffs. The team finished sixth in the regular season in the Eastern Conference standings.

Watch live broadcasts of the playoff matches of the Fonbet KHL Championship on , the thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.

RB Sport