Can you sum up the results of the training camp. Did you do everything you’d hoped?
Regarding the training, we did most of what we’d planned. You always want more, but we try and focus on the condition of the players and control the workload and keep the balance right. The large number of injuries is frustrating and this is a negative. There are not many muscle injuries, but football is a contact sport, and those incidents involving Malcom, Erokhin and Azmoun didn’t go well and they aren’t in full training so this is upsetting.
What are your plans for training, given that in St. Petersburg it is now -15 degrees. How will the team train in such conditions?
We will return to St. Petersburg and look at the state of the training base pitches and take a look at the stadium’s pitch. We’ll have medicals after we arrival for two days, but before the Cup game we will definitely train in St. Petersburg, we’ll make further decisions based on how things are
How can you avoid injuries during friendlies? Or is no one safe from them?
These injuries were the results of collisions, Malcom, Azmoun and Erokhin, and they cannot be avoided. As for the injuries to Driussi and Kuzyaev, these are muscle injuries. They aren’t too serious but it is still annoying. We must not forget about the pandemic that prevented other players from full training too. The situation is quite complicated, and everything together creates the picture that we see.
If we add together all the friendly matches that Zenit played in Dubai, the overall result is 24-2. Are you pleased with this in regards to the quality of your opponents?
We look at the intensity of matches and at our positive and negative points, we train the same way as any team. The results of the matches do not matter, but it is always nice to win. But I’ll say again we do not attach any importance to the results of these matches, just the training itself, the intensity is what we are looking at.
At the beginning of the training camp, you said that this was a chance to see young players in action, are you happy with how they performed?
We watched them train and some were given the chance to play alongside the first team on the pitch, so we'll see who will remain with the first team and who will return to Zenit-2. We will make our final decision in a couple of days.
Vasyutin's loan move has been officially announced. Can you comment on his departure to Sweden?
We know that he needs to play and when Andrei Lunev, our first choice goalkeeper, was injured, Kerzhakov looked good while playing and took his chance, this is football. Vasyutin is a real professional with a great attitude and we know he wants to play. So we meet and decided match practice was the best thing for him and he was happy.
