“I wasn’t a star - I just dragged the piano”: Zyryanov about the Russian team, the kick of Advokat, Mate Hiddink and today's youth

“We will cease to be competitive in the European arena”

- What is the difference between the Russian team-2008, in which you were a star, from the current one?

- Firstly, I was not a star. Other prominent footballers played there, and we, so, wore the piano for a day. As for the current team, it is more organized, since the Guus Hiddink team played more on emotions, inspiration. Wards Stanislav Cherchesov clearly adhere to the plan and tactically trained.

- And who is “carrying the piano” in the Russian team today?

- All 11. (Laughs) Well, ten and a half. We take out Artyom Dziuba, it stands out.

- Does the current national team have a football player who reminds you?

- Naturally, this should be a player in the center of the field. Most likely, Alexander Golovin is closer to me in position and style of play.

- Cherchesov is sometimes scolded for not trusting young people. What do you think about this as a coach who works with budding football players?

- The Russian team is the peak, and the strongest must play for it, regardless of age. There is no doubt that if the same Fedor Chalov were stronger than Dziuba, then he would go on the field. Cherchesov is not an enemy to himself. He sees everything and analyzes the situation. If a young football player appears who is really capable of competing with the collections, Stanislav Salamovich will immediately take him to him.

- Some of the young people could be called to the team, so that they simply gained experience ...

- You can take one or two matches. Now, for example, the national team has solved the problem, and it makes sense to give a chance to one of the promising guys. But it’s up to the coaching staff to decide. The strongest players must play in all teams and in all teams. Now Alexander Dyukov is carrying out a reform, a new limit on foreign players is being introduced in order to artificially tighten young players. Let's see where this leads us. In my opinion, such reforms should be carried out, but this takes time, and no one is going to give it.

- In recent years, many young players have played in the top clubs of the RPL. What is the reason for this? Maybe it's not just a limit.

- Nevertheless, in the first place, it is worth talking about the limit. If he were not there, ten foreigners of good quality would come, and the Russians would not be able to oust them. By the way, Sergei Semak said several times that the limit limits the possibilities of “Zenith” in European competition. Starting next season, each club will be able to enter in the application only eight legionnaires. That is, each team has to find 17 strong Russians. Can you imagine? At our place, Cherchesov cannot find so many people for the national team ...

- Do not you think that the new limit will reduce competition in the RPL?

- According to my feelings, we will cease to be competitive in the European arena. Some clubs - Zenit and Lokomotiv - are already beginning to redraw their teams based on the new limit, and they have a hard time in European competitions.

“So the limit on foreign players is harm?”

- I did not say that. Here you need to think, watch. Nevertheless, young talented Russian football players appear: the same Miranchuki, Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov, Matvey Safonov. But in “Krasnodar” a slightly different story, because Murad Musaev, before leading the team, coached the “youth team” and took many acquaintances from the guys up for promotion from there.

“After Euro 2008, they offered to leave for Europe. Refused ”

- In your opinion, should youth go to Europe at the first opportunity? An example of the same Alexander Golovin is indicative ...

- Perhaps it is positively influenced by Monaco. It is comfortable to live there. But seriously, this is a double-edged sword. After Euro 2008, I was offered to leave for Europe, but I said: “Guys, I'm 31 years old. I played the first season at Zenit, and it’s too late for me to go somewhere without knowing the language. ” He refused.

Golovin did the right thing, but we do not know the whole situation. Do you think Evgeny Giner wanted to let him go from CSKA? But there is an example of Serbia and Croatia, where football players are successfully raised. People leave from there already at the age of 17-18 and play quietly. In Russian clubs everything is arranged differently. We do not want to let the players go. We won’t give him a car, an apartment, but he will be ours, he grew up here! As our leaders like to say: "You are local, be patient, everything will be." At the same time, foreigners receive ten times more.

- Vyacheslav Karavaev and Nikolai Komlichenko at one time were not afraid to leave for the Czech Republic and are now regularly called up to the national team.

- I think Cherchesov simply has no choice in the championship of Russia, and he has to look even towards not the most football countries. It is no coincidence that Yuri Zhirkov has been indispensable in the national team for so many years.

- Do not you think that Zhirkov is simply the best football player in the country of the last decade?

- Let's get thirty years at once! Seriously, his career is an example to others. Yuri works on himself so much that at 36 he remains at the highest level. Young people should look at Zhirkov and study.

- Who is the best young football player in Russia now?

- I'll call Chalov. Miranchukov can no longer be considered young, because they turned 24. You can still recall Suleymanov. These are the players of the attacking group, they stand out. But there are no defenders on the horizon.

“Trying not to scream at the players, it makes no sense”

- What is the current football youth breathing in general? What are they afraid of, what are they dreaming of?

- Maybe they are afraid that the coach will scream, hit. Of course, joking, this is not our method. The guys are passionate about computer games. Some on the plane can read a book, which, of course, is good. Others speak foreign languages. But basically all their life goes on in gadgets, computers. What they play there was not interested, but I think not in a football simulator. In fact, there is not much football in their life. They come to training for a maximum of 2.5 hours and that's it. We, as a child, fled from training to play outside, went in for sports for 7-8 hours a day, and therefore were more developed than the current generation. Now the guys have less communication, I think most do not even know who lives in the next entrance. I am talking about this with the example of my children.

- At the same time, many coaches note that today's youth is more professional in their work.

- Yes it is. Guys often visit the gym before and after training. First of all, we enjoyed playing football. I never imagined that they would also pay for it.

Now, many children are brought in by parents who want to make Messi or Ronaldo out of their child. And this is a big problem, because you can’t play from under the stick. And my wards constantly repeat: "I can not teach you anything if you yourself do not want to."

- What coach are you, in a word?

- The dreamer. I dream of instilling in my team a certain football, but not everything depends on the coaching staff. Unfortunately, some players lack banal football qualities.

- During the match, can you yell at your wards?

- I start screaming when I see that a football player is incorrectly carrying out some tactical task. If we are talking about technical flaws, then what's the point of raising your voice? We accept football players as they are, and our task is to develop them as much as possible. If a person in ten years has not learned how to handle the ball and at the same time has grown to the youth team - this is a huge problem. Sometimes anger takes. But now I take it easier, because I understand: the guys still have to grow and grow. Some of them will then play in the RPL, or even leave for Europe, so they need to be trusted so that they can correct the mistakes.

- What kind of football do you like?

- For example, we require players to give strong passes so that the opponent does not have time to rebuild. In some matches, we ask you to control the ball in your own half, in others we take away to come up with something already near someone else's penalty area. We have many different tactical variations. Once in Orenburg they generally played two defenders and won. Then we still had no forwards, we experimented.

- Football in the performance of which teams you like?

- Naturally, it is interesting to watch the work of coaches who win and do it for a long period of time. This is Jurgen Klopp, Josep Guardiola, Antonio Conte. In general, the coach’s most important task is to find out where the players’s ceiling is and to demand from them what they are able to accomplish. Not everyone can play like Barcelona, ​​no matter how you train them.

- Often your youth jumps above a head?

- Long time no jump. We mainly play at our own level, and the UEFA Youth League has shown that it is not very high. Above the ceiling there we cannot jump.

- How is your communication with the wards after the matches?

- For example, after losing to Arsenal, I didn’t tell them anything. He went in, changed clothes, and drove to the airport. Usually in the locker room, in hot pursuit, he tried to explain something, but then decided to remain silent. Let's see how it works.

- What mistakes that the trainers made towards you are trying to avoid?

- Trying not to scream at the players. I think this makes no sense. Maybe there are those for whom you need to raise your voice, but in your team for the year they have not yet found them. I try to calmly explain everything, I say that there will still be tough trainers in their life. When I was a footballer, they sometimes shouted at me when I was doing something wrong. Hiddink? No, he did not scream. They just had the same curses with Dick Lawyer. But it was, as a rule, addressed to all at once. So we learned the Dutch mat.

“In Perm, the coach guarded me at the entrance and asked me not to quit football”

- In youth, are you trying to somehow adapt the tactical pattern to the manner of playing the basics?

- We are still discussing, because the leadership cannot understand, the youth team is the top of the academy, or is it the last step on the way to the main team. That is, we need to focus either on the academy or on the basis. I stick to the second option. I think that even the last two or three years at the academy, football players should play as the first team, so that they have an understanding in the youth team and Zenit-2. But we don’t have one yet, the system is not built. "Youth" is, in my opinion, a sieve. You must evaluate without emotion whether a person will go further or not.

- Practice shows that only a few club students grow up to the main team. Is it worth it to let others go earlier, if it is clear that they will not reach this level?

- You are talking about top clubs. If we take more modest teams, then at least 11 of their own pupils can play there. And serious clubs are facing serious tasks that they simply will not be able to solve with 18-19-year-old players. Or if you take the Zenith, imagine a Hulk and a young guy from the academy. Whose t-shirts will be bought more? But if the coach does not see you at the core, you need to leave. Then you can return to your home team, as Alexei Sutormin did the same.

- Do not you think that at the age of 18-19 it’s too early to play at the base?

- It all depends on the level of the team. If the leadership wants the young football player to play as long as possible, they will gradually let him go to the base. Young people are very ambitious now, they consider themselves the best football players in the world, so we have to explain that their time will come.

- Do your wards come to you with a question, is it worth staying at Zenit?

- There are such, these are older guys. They call and ask what is the best way to act, what are the prospects. Trying to help them. In this regard, I am on the side of the players. I advise them not as a coach representing the club, but as a person who spent many years in football.

- After all, you yourself almost finished your career when you just started playing for Perm Amkar. What did the trainers tell you then?

- It was the 90s, difficult years. I was 16-17 years old, and I just did not know what to do. The local "Star" in which he grew up was dying. Amkar was just born. But they still persuaded me to go there. The head coach of the team Sergey Oborin literally guarded me and my parents at the entrance, explained that it was worth staying in football. In St. Petersburg, one city - one team, everything is simpler here.

- Should the coach have favorites?

- Sure. I also have them, but I will not name them.

“We thought: everything, sailed. But it turned out that the Dutch arrived ”

- Judging by his memoirs, Hiddink’s favorite was you ...

- The fact that I spent a lot of time on the field is evidence of coaching confidence. But I can’t call myself Hiddink’s favorite, after all, football players played with him, with whom he had a warmer relationship, with whom he could laugh and have fun. It’s difficult to do with me. But Hiddink was fascinated by my physical fitness. According to the results of one of the tests, he said that I am the best in his coaching career along with Philip Koku and one player in the South Korean national team.

- The lawyer in one interview did compare you to Zinedine Zidane.

- Well, if only by the similarity of the name. By the way, Lawyer treated me warmer than Hiddink. Here with him we could laugh. Once he even gave me a kick for not scoring in the national team, although he did it regularly under Hiddink. He told him: "Dick Nikolasovich, I'm sorry."

- Emotions from Euro 2008 are the most striking in your career?

- At the national team level - yes. But the club's emotions were brighter, because with Zenit we won the UEFA Cup and Super Cup. Although the latter was perceived, of course, not so, because the match, in fact, was exhibition. Before the game we were told: “Guys, if you win, then the bonus amount will be this, but if you lose, then this.” That is, in any case, we received good money.

- If you recall the memorable quarter-final match of Euro 2008 with the Netherlands, what did Hiddink tell you before the extra time?

- Many times they asked this question. Always answered that I do not remember. Gus spoke German or English, and Igor Korneev with Alexander Borodyuk translated. After missing the ball at the very end of the ball, we listened and thought: everything, sailed. But it turned out that the Dutch arrived.

“Was Hiddink himself calm?”

- Oh sure. He should have been calm. The coach could not show us that he was nervous, because then the rest would have been “numbed”.

- During the match, there was an inner feeling that you are stronger and can squeeze the Netherlands?

- It was a lottery, and physical readiness came to the fore. As a trump card we had Andrei Arshavin, who missed the first two matches of the group stage. As for the nerves, we left them in the selection, when we lost to Israel and beat Andorra with a minimum score. After that, it was no longer scary.

- The current Russian team also managed to achieve serious success, reaching the quarterfinals of the home world championship. What do you think, which team love more, this or yours?

- They like teams that win. With me, the team reached the Euro semi-finals, and now it has taken fifth place in the World Cup. But we have one step from love to hate. It is worth stumbling - they will sweep away.

- Can this happen to this team?

- Sure. In Russia, this can happen to any team and any coach. Our people are impulsive.

- Do not you think that now the team is loved because there are no indifferent players in its composition?

- This is a merit of the coaching staff and Cherchesov. The team can be said to play with a knife. If the coach hadn’t been so tough, the national team wouldn’t have shown such a football.