"Our players will have a harder time": how the transfer of the Euro 2021 group stage to March will affect the Russian U21 team

The final part of the 2021 European Youth Championship in Hungary and Slovenia will be the first in history, in which 16 teams will take part at once.

Initially, the tournament was supposed to take place from June 9 to June 26, and such a calendar could well be called comfortable for the Russian national team.

By the summer, domestic footballers, having resumed the season at the end of February, usually reach their peak form, while the players representing the leading continental championships are getting tired.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has made its own adjustments to the timing of the tournament.

Due to the increase in the number of participants in the youth Euro and the transfer of the adult European championship from 2020 to 2021, UEFA had to split the tournament into two parts.

The group stage of Euro 2021 for U21 players will take place from 24 to 31 March.

16 participants, divided into four quartets of four teams, will determine the top eight among themselves.

The latter will hold the final tournament according to the playoff system from May 31 to June 6.

It is already extremely difficult to call this scheme beneficial for the youth national team of Russia.

Firstly, by the end of March, the players of the national team, unlike their rivals, will be in far from optimal shape, since the season in the country will resume only at the end of February.

Second, players have to start right off the bat.

From February 28 to March 21, teams will hold four rounds of the national championship in just 21 days.

Secondly, on February 20-21, the 1/8 finals of the Russian Cup will be held, in which the teams of the Premier League will also take part.

And already on March 2-3, the winners will face quarterfinal confrontations.

Finally, on February 16-17 and 23-24, as well as on March 9-10 and 16-17, the matches of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League will be held.

And the participants in the Europa League playoffs will have time to play two rounds before the start of the Euro 2021 group stage, that is, four matches each.

Thus, the Russian teams that leave the Champions League and LE groups (for example, CSKA), in theory, can play up to ten meetings in all tournaments in a month, and the leading players of the youth team risk approaching the most important tournament visibly tired and exhausted.

With such a tight schedule, there is no need to talk about a training camp for the national team, unless it is organized in January-February.

But it is unlikely that the leaders of the clubs, solving their problems in the RPL, will agree to meet the RFU halfway.

It is no coincidence that Mikhail Galaktionov, after the victory over Latvia, which led Russia U21 to Euro 2021, expressed hope that at least the November training camp would not fail.

Moreover, Russia is ready to hold the group stage of the youth Euro 2021, which can at least make life a little easier for the national team.

The RFU is currently considering the possibility of filing an application.

"Canceling the RPL tour for the sake of the national team is unrealistic"

To figure out how the national team should prepare for the championship of the continent in such difficult conditions, RT talked with the former youth mentor Yevgeny Bushmanov and the experienced coach Haji Gadzhiev, who participated in the preparation of a number of national teams of different ages for major tournaments.

The experts took different positions.

So, Bushmanov does not see anything terrible in what is happening.

“There is really no time now.

On the other hand, previously only eight national teams made their way to the final stage of the youth Euro.

Everywhere has its pros and cons.

How can a team be without preparation?

Just as usual.

The tournament will take place in the March window for the national teams.

Football players have gathered and played in this period before.

It's just that the Russians are not waiting for two matches, but three, ”the coach emphasized.

At the same time, according to the expert, Russian footballers at Euro 2021 should not be prepared from a functional point of view worse than their rivals.

“Firstly, in the winter they will be trained with their teams.

Secondly, even four RPL rounds are quite enough to find a game rhythm.

The main thing is that the players get as much practice as possible in their teams, ”Bushmanov added.

As for the training camp for the youth team, the coach admitted that the team needed him.

But, relying on his own experience, he stressed that it would be extremely difficult to organize it, having agreed with all the RPL clubs.

“It is theoretically possible.

Question: will it be possible to agree with the clubs?

We once organized such a gathering.

Then almost everyone came to us except for the players of the teams who were to play in the playoffs of European cups.

We need to communicate, but the clubs are likely to resist, because in February there are no official windows for national teams.

They have the right to refuse.

But to cancel the RPL tour for the sake of the youth team, I think, is unrealistic, "Bushmanov explained.

"We are hostages of the coronavirus pandemic"

In its turn?

Gadzhi Gadzhiev complained that the coaches of the Russian U21 national team on the eve of Euro 2021 will have to be extremely difficult.

As a positive example, the coach recalled the Soviet times, when national teams were a priority and had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time at the training camp.

“Previously, the junior national teams spent up to 160-170 days of joint work a year.

And the Soviet Olympic team, which won gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, worked together for 129 days.

It was easier for coaches to work then.

Now times are different, but not everything went to the benefit of football.

It's still a national team - there is a national team.

She represents the honor of the country.

From this point of view, the national teams need to be helped.

Of course, it would be right to allow the youth to get together at least for a short training camp in January-February.

They will stay together for a week, and nothing will change in the preparation of the clubs, ”Hajiyev said.

The specialist also disagreed with the fact that the players will come up in good shape by Euro 2021.

According to him, they simply will not have time to gain optimal condition?

in contrast to rivals who will not go on a long winter break in their national championships.

“There is no getting away from this.

No matter how the players prepare for the season, they reach the highest level after a certain number of matches, for example, eight to ten.

And if you played only three meetings before the start of the tournament, and your opponent - ten, of course, he will be in the best condition.

Moreover, you won't have time to get tired for these ten matches, ”Hajiyev explained.

In turn, another former head coach of the youth national team of Russia Nikolai Pisarev, under whose leadership the team traveled to Euro 2013, noted that UEFA in the current reality simply had no choice but to split the European Championship 2021 into two parts.

“Of course, our guys will have a harder time.

But in this situation, we are all hostages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nobody imagined that the national teams' calendar would have to pause for almost a year.

UEFA did the right thing by dividing the youth Euro into two parts.

The density of the calendar is too large, and it is necessary to take into account the interests of not only national teams, but also clubs.

We need to proceed from these introductory statements and just prepare, ”Pisarev said.