Shakhtar lost for the first time under Marino Pusic in the Ukrainian Championship
Mentor Shakhtar Marino Pusic commented on the defeat to Dnepr-1 (1:3) in the 14th round of the UPL. The coach emphasized that the key moment of the match was Eduard Sarapia’s goal at the end of the first half.
“Replacement for Rakitsky? Of course, there is always a reason for replacement. I agree with you, we played the first half very well. And when you spend the first half well, dominate, create many chances to score the second, third goal and increase the gap, and then get a return goal out of nowhere, from a corner, then these goals are very expensive. It changed the pace and mood of the game.”
“The reason for replacing Rakitsky was that he was feeling more and more tired, and we wanted new energy, we wanted to use new players so that the full-backs would attack more often. Obviously, this was not enough. We win together and we lose together. It’s not about Yaroslav, he is a great person and fighter, he wants to play and is a good football player. So, it’s not about him. We win together and we lose together too.”
“We tried to change the rhythm of the game with the help of substitutions, to attack, because it is very difficult for a team when you concede two goals in a row – one very good goal from a set piece, from a free kick and one from 25 meters into the left corner. You lose energy, your faith in a positive result also decreases. We tried to change this, revitalize the team with new players, used all the strikers, took all the risks. It is not easy to break such a wall. There are several options to do this, but we did not use them.”
“As I said at the beginning, my appointment happened very quickly, we are still at the stage where I am studying the players. That’s why we organized a sparring session next week to see how other players perform. We will continue to play the way we are now and hope the results will be better.”
“Do we need to add anything? We’ll see during the winter break, I can’t comment on that now. I’m happy with my players and we’ll see during the winter break if we need anything else.”
Shakhtar lost for the first time under Marino Pusic in the Ukrainian Championship and is in fourth position. In the next round of the Ukrainian championship, Shakhtar will play Polissya. The meeting is scheduled for November 24.
Source: Sportarena
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