Sergei Semak: "We plan to train, to prepare and play three matches as part of a tournament"

The Zenit manager spoke to the media about the second Gazprom Training Camp and the Winline RPL Winter Cup.
Sergei Semak: "We plan to train, to prepare and play three matches as part of a tournament"

Can you tell us the team’s plans for the second Gazprom Training Camp in Abu-Dhabi?

We plan to train, to prepare and play three matches as part of a tournament, on 4 and 7 of February, and a third match on 10 or 11 February. We may play two more games, but we’ll see, it depends on the players available and how many more matches we’ll need at this camp. It all depends on how many players we have available.

Have the players had enough time to fully recover and be ready for the second camp?

In my opinion, three days is enough time to rest. We’re already in training mode and after three or four days it’s harder to get back into the rhythm of training. So, I think three days is enough and we’ll start preparing today.

Your opponents for this tournament are well-known to you, at least in the first two matches. Is it a plus or a minus to play Russian teams at this stage of preparation, or doesn’t it matter?

I think it is generally doesn’t matter, the teams are at different stages of preparation. Every team and coach has their own preparation plans and objectives. Just out of curiosity, it can be more interesting to play clubs from other leagues and foreign clubs. We play with Russian clubs both in the championship and in the Cup, and we play quite a lot of matches. But anyway, we are currently focusing on preparation, so really, there’s no big difference.

Zenit are rebuilding and it’s a hot topic, Luiz Henrique has been the biggest purchase of the winter for a big sum. Is this a knee-jerk reaction to regain first place in the RPL, or is this a restructuring that has been planned for a while? With the departures of Claudinho, Artur and the summer departure of Wendel, has this change been coming?

I think that any team has a shelf life, it can be longer for some, but if you look at the stats, it’s rare that players stay at one club for more than three years at an elite level, so changes are definitely overdue. Regarding our new signing, it’s totally normal, and you know that this is an swap deal and the club has not spending anything in this transfer window yet. We’ve sold Claudinho, and the swap deal was part of the plan for this pre-season. We know what we can and cannot do. Now we’re looking at optimizing the positions we need to strengthen in. Claudinho said he wanted to leave and we found a deal that suited the player and the club. Now we are looking for a player for his position. 

As for Artur, we expected more from him and things didn’t work out quite right for him, although he did contribute to our results, and we are certainly grateful to him for that. I also think that everyone knows that Wendel has expressed his desire to play somewhere else, or return home, a few times over the past few years. The club has tried to meet him halfway and things worked out with this player exchange deal. In my opinion, this is a good decision for both Artur and Wendel, and for both clubs.

About new signings. I’ve recently read that Rodrigo Zalazar coming to Zenit, are you expecting him and how many other new players are you expecting this transfer window?

We’ll see... Vanya Drkusic, who was on loan, is returning, as has Du Queiroz, but we’ll see how long he stays, as we’re now deciding about this. As for the new players like Zalazar… There are players the club are in negotiations with, but I’m not expecting many of them. Probably, one or two players who will join us at this training camp.


Sobolev scored a few at the last training camp. Do you feel that mentally or physically he is not the same as he was in the autumn, when things didn’t go well for him, will things be different for Sobolev in the spring?

Sasha has improved since he joined our team, as he missed a lot of football. Training alone and missing pre-season is very difficult for any player. He also faced a lot of pressure and this prevented him from fully showing what he is capable of doing. Looking at the matches we’ve played, and the fact that he has scored is good, but it’s too early to comment on the quality of his game, at the moment all of the players are lacking quality, and they need to get match fit, but now we will play more, so we will have more information soon. Then we will now how ready everyone is and who deserves to be in the starting lineup.

Does Sobolev arrive at breakfast on time?

Everyone arrives to the training camp on time. All of the guys are great when it comes to this. They all show their determination to work hard.