Sandro Schwarz: Two consecutive away matches will not have an impact on the freshness of our players

# Sandro Schwarz

Dynamo Head Coach Sandro Schwarz answered journalists' questions on the eve of the match against Rubin Kazan.

— Share your expectations from the upcoming match.

— We are glad to play in front of our stands again. We are waiting for a tough and intense match. Rubin are famous for their well-organized defense, but they also have attacking players who can cause troubles. We need to play with full concentration and dedication, as we did in the match against Sochi.

— In the spring, Dynamo suffered a painful defeat against Rubin in Kazan. Will the team be especially motivated in this regard?

— We do not look back, and we do not have any revanchist sentiments. We analyzed that game and made certain conclusions. We need to neutralize the opponent's strong qualities and put our strengths at the forefront.

— How is Anton Shunin's recovery going on? Is he ready for the upcoming match?

— He is still following an individual program. We won't count on him on Sunday.

— Ivan Ordets wore the captain's armband in the match against Sochi, and Sergey Parshivlyuk became captain in Stavropol. How will you arrange this situation further?

— Before the Cup encounter, I had a conversation with Ivan and Sergey. They are both leading players of the team. So we decided that Sergey would be the captain. We have a group of experienced players, which includes Balbuena, Yevgenyev, Ordets, Parshivlyuk, Szymanski and Shunin. Each of them could wear the captain's armband.

— Can such a big victory in the Cup match relax the players?

— No. Not any victory can guarantee a confident performance in the next matches. It only proves that we played with full concentration throughout the match and controlled the game. We scored good goals and are coming to the next encounter in a great mood.

— You decided to hold back Arsen Zakharyan and Sebastian Szymanski in the Cup match. Will they be ready for Sunday's game?

— The question is open for these players. Szymanski has been training individually all these days, Zakharyan spent part of yesterday's training in the squad, and then also trained individually. Today's training session will show how much the guys will be ready for Sunday's encounter. Tomorrow we will make a decision on their appearance.

— How long will Diego Laxalt be unavailable? What conditions is he now?

— We talked to Diego after he was injured. Let's hope that he will be able to return as soon as possible, but we can definitely say that Laxalt will miss the next 3-4 matches.

— This week, Rubin did not play a Cup match. Will this factor be important in Sunday's game?

— I don't think that it will be a determining factor. We are in great physical shape. On Wednesday, our players ran 117 kilometers. I don't think that these two away matches will have a big impact on the freshness of the players.

— In the match against Sochi, the team switched to a game with three centre-backs. Can this tactical scheme become the main one in key matches from the very beginning, and not in short periods?

— The scheme is not always the determining factor. We look at how the match is going, and only then we make certain changes. We switched to a game with three centre-backs, because we had certain problems in defense and we needed to bring more safety to the defensive zone.

— Recently, you said in an interview that you limited the communication of Zakharyan and Tyukavin with the media so that they would not be distracted from football. Now Galkin, Gladyshev and Kutitsky are getting closer to the starting eleven. Will you also limit their communication with journalists? Is any of them ready to play a full match in the RPL?

— I would like to emphasize that we have nothing against the media. I am convinced that the attention of young players should not be scattered on other things. The guys should be completely immersed in football, think only about it. Now Zakharyan and Tyukavin are more open to the media. The same goes for these three young players. They should do their job professionally both on and off the football pitch.

Kutitsky, Galkin and Gladyshev performed well in the Cup encounter. It is likely that they will get playing time in an official RPL match.

— Do you consider Denis Makarov a striker, or he is a player of the single position for you?

— Yes, he often shifts to the position of a centre-forward, but I see him as a winger. Denis can show his strong qualities there.

— Recently, there have been a lot of talks about reforms in Russian football, including the format of the championship. Do you think that the Russian Premier League needs such changes?

— First of all, we need to understand how such changes can improve the results of Russian sides in the international arena. Many representatives of the Russian football should play in European cups, and the national teams should perform as well as possible. But at the same time, when we talk about changing the number of matches, I don't think that it can somehow affect their quality.

Here we should talk about the football education of coaches and academies that develop young players. Progress on this issue should lead to an improvement of the quality of all Russian football. The main factor that can lead to this growth is daily fastidious work.

I respect the proposal that the Dutch company has put forward for consideration. But I think that the format in which the championship is being held now is the most correct one. According to the results of a regular tournament, the champion is determined, the teams from the bottom of the table are relegated, and the best representatives of the lower league come in their place. Teams play home and away against each other, and it seems to me the most honest distribution of places in the final table. The computer should not decide with whom the teams play home and with whom away. This is an external factor that affects the principle of sports equity.