Luis Anula: "It's a big pleasure to work at a club like Zenit and in a city like St Petersburg"

As the Zenit-2 lads continue to delve into their second warm-weather training camp, we sat down with the team's new fitness and conditioning coach to find out about how he's settling in and finding life with the club.

Luis at his first Zenit training session

Welcome to St. Petersburg Luis, how are you settling in so far? 

Thanks a lot! Everything is going fine. The welcome from the club, staff and players has been great, so it has made settling in very easy for me from the beginning. I'm very grateful for their welcoming nature, it's a big pleasure to work at a club like Zenit and in a city like St Petersburg. 

You came here on the back of being with Finnish side KuPS, how did the opportunity arise to join Zenit-2?

Last season I won the Veikkausliiga (Finnish top division) with KuPS. Although I wasn’t really looking for a change, the opportunity to join Zenit came up and as everybody knows, you cannot say no to a club of this size. Konstantin Shipulin, who works in the scouting department at Zenit and had previously been at KuPS as a Sporting Director, introduced my work to the club. Zenit-2 had been looking to find someone to fill the role since Dani Pastor left the team, so after meeting with Anton Evmenov, chief scout at Zenit, and Vladislav Radimov, the famous head coach of Zenit-2, we agreed that I would join the team in the winter. I am very grateful and confident of being the right person for the job and for the team.

Can you explain a little bit about your role and your key aims with the players?

My role will be to design and develop the physical training of this team, as well as support the coaching staff to structure the training process in order to ensure the best possible physical performance of this team and, of course, the development of the players. I think the biggest challenge for us coaches at Zenit-2, is to provide players to the first team. Therefore, my personal challenge is to help the players to perform at the level expected of them when the opportunity arises to join up with the first team. 

How are the players looking during the winter break, are you and the other coaches happy with their progression to match fitness? 

The players are working very hard, their level of commitment and willingness to improve is truly amazing. I'm very impressed and happy. At the moment, every opponent has demanded different things from us during this winter camp, but the players have adjusted perfectly. I think we have a group with a good work ethic, so that will ensure a good physical condition after the winter break. 

How is your current knowledge of the lads on a one-to-one basis, do you know their strengths and weaknesses already?

During the first winter camp with the team I spent a lot of time analyzing the players, watching their training and matches repeatedly, in order to identify their qualities and needs. Although I still don't know everything, I'm close to being able to maximize my help for them. At the moment, I know how they react from the training loads and therefore how much they are able to train. This is the aim of the training camps, we are also trying to collectively push the shape of the team. During the second part of the season, we will have time to improve the fine details.

What do you think of the facilities we have here at Zenit for you and the players at the training base? 

The truth is that I have spent very little time at the training facilities, but my first impressions have been very good. For as much as I could see, we have everything we need to do a very good job. I like that we are very close to the first team, so players can keep their target close to them everyday. 

The season recommences in April, are you confident the team will be in a strong condition throughout to challenge for the title?

Everything is in our hands to get the best out of this team. We need to be conscious that the reality of this team has changed somewhat. The squad has lost several players. Some of them are currently training with the first team, some have left to other clubs. Although, this only shows what a good job we are doing as coaches and players during the first part of the season. As I said before, one of our aims is to help the players to progress on with their careers into first-team football. This is a very good opportunity for the players who haven't been in the spotlight during the first part of this season to show up and demonstrate what they are capable of.

You can follow and keep up to date with the new Zenit 2 Fitness and Conditioning coach on Twitter here: @lanula_92

You can also follow all the news and action of Zenit 2 on the active English Twitter account: @fczenit2_en