“Today the Russian team is not afraid of anyone”: Ignatiev about the match with Scotland, Cherchesov’s experiments and the role of Dziuba

“We must pay tribute to the team, it almost completed the task”

- In anticipation of the match with Scotland, the fans are ready to carry the Russian team in their arms. But do not you think that our team just got a relatively easy group?

- I would simplify the situation: the composition of the group does not play a role, because all the teams go on the field and fight. And before the matches, we can’t determine how weak the opponent is and what our level is. Remembering the first game with the Scots, I expected to see in Glasgow a strong powerful representative of British football, aggressive and well acting on the “second floor”. But the Scots were weaker. Therefore, you just have to pay tribute to our team. The main thing is that Stanislav Cherchesov’s wards had a certain task, and they practically completed it. After all, there were quite a few examples in the history of Russian football when the team received seemingly inferior opponents in the class, but in the end suffered a fiasco.

- Based on what we saw in the first match with Scotland, Russian fans can not worry about the result?

- You always need to worry if you are worried about the team. Nobody lit the green light in front of the team, we must achieve the right to speak at Euro 2020. If on Thursday the reins of the game move to Scotland, everything could end badly for Russia.

- To some extent, the players themselves can relax, because to solve the problem of reaching the final stage of the tournament, it remains to score only a few points ...

- I think Cherchesov will not allow this. He managed not only to infect the wards with his idea, but also to bring them under a common denominator. And most importantly, the players understand what is required of them. Plus, our players have a margin of points and will psychologically feel confident. Today we are not afraid of anyone what the World Cup showed, and we enter the field with dignity.

- Do you expect any unexpected moves from Cherchesov, or in the most important match he will not look for good from good?

- Those who truly deserve it will play. Those who are able to give a result. But after the games with Scotland and Cyprus, when the task of reaching the final stage of Euro 2020 can be solved, it’s worth waiting for some experiments. Then Cherchesov can look at the nearest reserve in business.

- In the starting lineup of the Russian team for the match with Scotland there are not many places for which there is real competition. One of them is the support zone. In your opinion, who will make the company to Magomed Ozdoev on Thursday, Ilzat Akhmetov or Dmitry Barinov?

- It’s hard for me to talk about this topic. Both look good in their clubs, but their psychological and functional state will play an important role. How a football player slept, what he ate - all this matters. But Barinov in terms of power and character seems preferable to Akhmetov. He, and not Ilzat, can more likely be called an opornik-destroyer.

- In recent matches, Yuri Zhirkov has returned to the national team. Does the fact that the 36-year-old footballer never found a replacement in the national team sadden you?

- This is one side of the coin. Another - Jura needs to be paid tribute to his skill, athletic longevity and devotion. He has not left the team and is trying to help her. However, in our football there is a very small selection of strong skillful football players. Therefore, they play at the start of Marinato Guillerme with Mario Fernandez. Naturalization does not come from a good life.

- On the right in the attack, most likely, Alexey Ionov will play, but many fans literally demand an exit to the field of Zelimkhan Bakayev ...

- What do you mean, demand? Fans can demand something from their wives. And to train the team is a matter of national importance. Cherchesov was appointed to the post, and only he has the right to decide who he needs. This is where some experts differ from others. Some try to please fans and leaders, while others defend their interests and give results.

“Dziuba is a big screw of the mechanism, but everything is not only held by it”

- Why does it often turn out that young football players shine in clubs, but look modestly in the national team? A vivid example of this is the Miranchuk brothers.

- Well, the best of the best play at this level, it is not surprising that it is difficult for them to prove themselves. Again, it is one thing when Lokomotiv plays in the RPL, and another when it confronts European giants in the Champions League. And for Russian football players it is very important to get this experience. Yes, someone may not be suitable for the team’s playing style, but in a national team, football players must adapt to Cherchesov’s requirements. Great masters are capable of this. And in Lokomotiv, the whole game is really being built around the same Miranchuk.

- Do not you think that Cherchesov became a hostage to his scheme of the game? A lot in the actions of the national team depends on Artyom Dziuba, and the same Fedor Chalov, for example, is not called up to the team at all.

- Dziuba created his own name and did a lot for the national team. Of course, Cherchesov chooses the scheme into which Artyom fits organically. And many people want to see Chalov in the national team, but he must confirm his level and create such a competition for Dziube so that we have constant debates on this topic. This season I saw a lot of Chalov’s games, but I didn’t understand why he can today squeeze out Artyom from the base. Perhaps the time will come, and it will happen. But while he does not score for the youth team, although there is a lot of talk around him.

- Do not you think that the problem is wider, and the team is too dependent on Dziuba?

- He is a big screw of this mechanism, but everything rests not only on it. Still, there are 10 more players. However, Artyom deserved to be the basis of the national team with his game in the club, especially considering his capabilities and skills. Not surprisingly, the team’s game is being built around him. This is how football is organized all over the world. Now we have Dziuba, and earlier the game was determined by Eduard Streltsov, Nikita Simonyan and others. So far, we have no other choice.

- It will be interesting for you to see in the case of Aleksandr Sobolev, who scored ten goals in the first 12 rounds of the RPL?

- No. He has good qualities, but they are suitable for internal use. Sobolev, for example, lacks speed, dexterity, although he has penetrative power. Yes, he resembles Dziuba, but he has not yet shown himself at the European level. As soon as he does this, then it will be possible to talk about something. It’s hard to imagine how he will prove himself in the match with the top team. The same Chalov scored 15 goals last season, but where? In the RPL. So Sobolev at the moment is an ordinary footballer who has established himself only in the championship of Russia.