You’re going to play your third game in a week. What physical and mental condition is the team in getting ready to face Fakel?
“They’re in the usual working condition. For the most part we’re recovering, and it’s clear that with these fixtures it’s tough to work on something major. We’re focusing mostly on recovery and hope that we’re going to face Fakel in good condition.”
Is there any new information on the injured players? When should we expect them to return?
“There’s nothing new at the moment. The information on Andrey Mostovoy has been published and we know that his recovery is going to take about four weeks. Rodrigão is also still recovering and he might come back at the same time with Andrey, in a couple of weeks he will start training on the pitch and then join the team. With Dmitriy Chistyakov’s situation it’s difficult to say when he is going to be ready. He might be able to start training for the next match, at least that’s what we’re hoping for.”
Dmitriy Vasiliev appeared in the starting team for the first time in Samara. What would you say about the young player’s game?
“He did well for his age. There were good episodes, but there were also mistakes and quite simple ones. Overall I liked his game.”
Fakel had four defeats in a row at the beginning of the season, but they also won away against CSKA. What does this start of the season say about the team from Voronezh?
“We’re familiar with the manager and the team, they’re very determined. Speaking of the correlation between the quality of the game and the amount of points they have, I think they were a little bit unlucky as Fakel have scored in all of their matches so far. I suppose their accuracy might have been off and they weren’t as lucky, and that led to losing points. The team has shown strength last season and this season too. Playing against Fakel is never going to be easy for anyone.”
In the last few matches Zenit had to rotate the players in defence and switch formations. How difficult is this objective for the coaching staff?
“Problems are always there. Now we’re dealing with one thing, another time we’ll be facing something else. We’re focusing on what we have at the moment. We have troubles with the quality of our finishing shots. Despite creating many chances we’re lacking quality in finishing them. We’re working on it, and based on the situation we have we’re going to think how to build our game for it to be good and to get the points that we need.”
There are injured and suspended players in the squad. Considering this fact, how important is it for Mário and Kovalenko to improve their fitness levels faster?
“It’s not only Mário and Kovalenko who have just joined the team and missed a lot, the same can be said about Wendel. There are enough troubles, the squad has changed and those who joined have not reached their best fitness levels yet. There are some questions, but we’re dealing with them.”
