Sandro Schwarz: I have no doubt about our players’ skills and I fully trust them

— What are your expectations from the upcoming encounter?

— We will face a serious opponent. Sochi have an organized team where the coaching role is very important. At the meeting with the players, I said that we should show our best qualities on Sunday. We will have a serious test that should be overcome.

— Sochi usually play well against top clubs, and Dynamo do not look confident at the Fisht Stadium. Do you have any concern about it?

— We need to neutralize the opponent's strong points. We need to focus on our qualities. It is necessary to be confident during the match, enter the game fully concentrated and look for the chances in attack.

— What do you mean by neutralizing the strong points of Sochi? Do you mean special attention to Christian Noboa, who now scores a lot and makes many assists?

— He is a very good and creative football player. When Christian possesses the ball, he often looks for wingers who join the attack. But we will not play personally against him. For us, the main thing is a team defense.

— Will you pay special attention to the former Dynamo players in the Sochi squad?

— We will not single out the footballers who previously played at Dynamo. We need to analyze all the players who will start on Sunday. It is important to clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent.

— Since 2020, Sochi won 18 matches at home, only Zenit have the better statistics. Will Dynamo play their football against a team that performs so well at home?

— It is not so important what team is the favorite in the upcoming fixture. We need to stick to the game plan, play confident and calm.

— Good pitch conditions are important for Dynamo. It has been raining for two days in Sochi, and the pitch is likely to be heavy. Do you keep it in mind?

— It is very difficult to influence the weather. The main thing is to choose the right boots. By the way, we were successful in matches when it was raining.

— Kevin Kuranyi had the nickname «the killer of goal scoring chances», but he proved the opposite at Dynamo. Did you have an idea to invite him to hold a master class for the strikers of the White-Blues?

— I know him well, but we will not invite him. I fully trust our players, and they will prove it yet.

— This season, the team have problems with finishing. What is the reason for it and how are you working on it?

— I never had any doubt about our players’ skills, I fully trust them. We dominated in the first half of the match against Nizhny Novgorod, we could have scored more, but we didn’t do it. In the dressing room, we asked the guys for continuing in the same way, but we lost in the second half. We had a tough conversation after the match, held an analysis of this encounter. On Sunday, it will be important to press the accelerator pedal for the entire 90 minutes. We need to give everything to achieve a positive result.

— What was the subject of this tough conversation with the team? What conclusions were drawn?

— In the first half, we played well, immediately tackled after losing the ball and looked very good in all aspects of the game. In the second half, we did not tackle immediately and allowed the opponent to run into fast counterattacks, we lost control of the game. When the penalty was awarded to Nizhny Novgorod, we lost confidence. Therefore, there were two completely different halves.

— Why did you field Clinton N’Jie as a forward? Did he work on the execution of the penalty this week?

— A week before the match against Nizhny Novgorod, we played a friendly encounter against Khimki-M, and Clinton played well in the position of a centre-forward, that he knows very well. As for the penalty, we didn’t work specially on this aspect during the week-long training cycle.

— Why does Arsen Zakharyan play on the wing, and not in the midfield, where he can show his best qualities?

— Zakharyan played the last matches in the position of a left winger and showed himself very well both in attacking actions and defense. But we also know that he can play in the position of a central midfielder.

— The team dominated in the match against Nizhny Novgorod, but the second goal was not scored. Maybe it made sense to play more defensively, given the opponent's regrouping?

— I would put the emphasis a little differently. We did not need to play more defensively, but we had to play as disciplined and attentive as in the first half. But we started making positional mistakes, after which we lost confidence in the match that was in our hands.

— After the match against Lokomotiv, the journalists asked you why Dynamo players hit so little from distance, and there were more such shots in the previous encounter. Why do Dynamo players hit rarely the target? Do you believe in superstitions?

— No, I don't believe in superstitions. Indeed, we have quite a lot of shots, but not so many on target. I would not like to focus on what happened, this is already a history. We do not look back, we look only forward.

— After the match against Sochi, the team will play in Stavropol in three days. Have you already thought about the squad for the Russian Cup match?

— We will stay in Sochi after the Sunday’s match, hold a recovery training there and then fly to Stavropol. We haven't thought about the squad yet, because we are fully focused on the match against Sochi.