Last year’s Super Cup was not very spectacular and the players didn’t seem in peak condition. How would you rate the team's condition now, and are they ready for Saturday's match?
Last year was not our best performance and we weren’t in top condition for the game, which didn’t go the way we wanted. But this happens at the start of a season, when teams are just starting the season. It is very difficult to predict how Saturday’s game will go. It’s not worth saying that the team is in great shape, but they are ready to play a full 90 minutes. Most of the players are ready for this.
How do you rate the current Krasnodar team? Also is it important that their top scorer John Cordoba, will not have returned from the Copa America before the Super Cup?
Krasnodar have changed a little, and they have three foreign players at the Copa America, but their other players will be available for the game. They have had some players leave, and some join them, but the changes have been small. Fedor Smolov rejoining the team is a big plus for them. He can play both a central striker and as a second striker with Cordoba, he will certainly add options for them, as well as being able to score goals. He’s a major signing. The same can be said about Viktor Sa, who’s had time to adapt after being there for some time.
Their entire attack looks very strong. They were around the top of the league last season for some time, and finished in second behind us. This will be a game between the league’s two strongest clubs. It’s always interesting to play against Krasnodar, and it is very difficult to predict how the game will go.
At the last press conference you said that the Chairman Alexander Medvedev is in charge of buying players, while you focused on coaching the team, is this true or a joke?
I was serious, I coach (smiles).
Can you tell us more about your involvement in transfers? Do you have the final say on transfers? Do you ever get players you don’t want?
We have a structure within the club, we have transfer meetings and a list of targets every transfer window. We sit down and discuss what positions we need to strengthen and look at the options available. Then the club’s management, led by Alexander Medvedev, start the process of seeing who’s available and check the possibility of signing those targets, depending on the cost.
They keep me informed and players I don’t want aren’t signed. Disagreements do exist and there may be opinions other than my own, but that’s our job and we are always working for the benefit of the club. There are no issues here and Alexander Medvedev is in charge of signing players.
There has been a lot of speculation of Claudinho leaving the club, how difficult would it be to replace him and are you ready for him leaving?
Claudinho is one of our top players and there is interest in him of course, but the any offer has to be right for the player and the club. We understand the wishes of the players after the amount of time he has been at the club. Sometimes players want a change, and this can be for one reason or another, including family ones.
We see this sort of speculation about our best players in almost every transfer window and we have to asses our options. All the players are here today, but no one knows what will happen tomorrow. If an offer comes in that suits both the player and the club, we won’t force anyone to stay. We will look for new players to fill the positions of those who leave, but there are no specifics yet. At the moment it’s only speculation.
There are lots of transfer rumours of Alexander Sobolev joining you from Spartak, but do you need a striker as you already have Ivan Sergeev on the team? How would you rate Sergeev’s ability to help the team?
We have two forwards, but they are different in the way they play. Sergeev played upfront in the absence of Cassierra, but it’s better for him to play as a second striker. He is not a forward for the 4-3-3 system, so we do not have a direct replacement for Mateo, so we’ll need someone to play in the Cassierra position when he is not available. We could play Glushenkov or Erokhin there, but we do not have a like-for-like Cassierra replacement.
The team needs a forward who can fight for the ball. We play a lot of matches when the opposition defends very deep so we need a forward who is good in the air, many teams have three or four forwards in their squad, yet we have only two. If we are going to play with two forwards then this is not enough, so let's see what happens. We want players who can strengthen our team, not just replacement a player. We have Isidor, but he is not a forward, he is an attacking winger. We have used him as a forward out of desperation, and we do not have enough strikers.