“Everything is determined by the result”: how experts assess the appointment of Jokanovic to Dynamo

"Gold doubles" in Serbia and failures in Spain and England

The appointment of Slavisa Jokanovic to Dynamo was a rather unexpected move on the part of the club's management.

It seemed that the place of Sandro Schwarz, who headed Hertha, would be taken by one of his compatriots, well known to the deputy general director of the blue and white sports Zeljko Buvac, or, as a more economical option, a Russian.

However, the choice was made in favor of the Serbian coach, who is not well known in the country.

Pavel Pivovarov, general director of Muscovites, explained this by compliance with “basic priorities”: discipline, responsibility, concentration on achieving goals and dedication.

At the same time, the career of the 53-year-old mentor is still rather ambiguous.

Having hung up his boots, at the age of 39 he headed one of the strongest teams in the country, Partizan, and made a splash with it.

Young Jokanovic scored twice the "golden double" and attracted the attention of more status clubs from other countries.

This was facilitated by Slavisha's performance in Spain and England as a football player, where he learned the respective languages.

It is not surprising that he ended up working most of all on Foggy Albion.

Moreover, the Serb has become a real specialist in the second division of the country - the Championship, where he spent 168 matches.

And twice he managed to reach the Premier League.

He first achieved success in 2015.

The helmsman took over Watford in October 2014 and took off with him to second place, only behind Bournemouth.

However, he did not have a chance to make his debut in the Premier League then.

The coach did not agree with the leadership on the transfer policy and went to Israel.

To repeat the achievement came already at the head of Fulham three years later.

Jokanovic, having led the Londoners, saved them from relegation in his debut season, in the next he made it to the playoffs for the right to upgrade, and in the third, he finally achieved a solution to the problem.

The team missed ahead only Cardiff and Wolverhampton.

However, there were enough failures in the career of the two-time champion of Serbia.

The main one happened just with Fulham in the Premier League.

The team was seriously strengthened before returning to the elite, but looked terrible at the start.

In the first 12 rounds, she scored only five points.

And if at first things were not going so badly, then in September-November the Londoners gave out a six-match losing streak and dropped to last place.

Moreover, in this segment they scored only three goals, and conceded 18. After the failure in the confrontation with Liverpool, the coach left his post.

And this is not the only fiasco of Jokanovic.

In 2013, he headed the Bulgarian "Levski", but was fired after only a few months and left one of the strongest teams in the country in sixth place in the national championship.

In May 2014, he tried to save Hercules from relegation from the Spanish Segunda, but failed, having won only one victory in five meetings.

Finally, last year's short-term voyage to Sheffield United ended in failure, where the Serbian played only 22 games and left when the Blades occupied a modest 16th position in the Championship standings.

Dynamo fans should also be alarmed by the fact that he only worked a full season in three clubs - in Partizan, Fulham and Al-Gharafa from Qatar.

But during a six-month period at Maccabi Tel Aviv, Slavisha made his debut in the group stage of the Champions League, where his wards suffered six defeats in six matches, and together with Muangthong United became the champion of Thailand.

Bet on attacking football and problems in defense

As for the football philosophy that the coach is trying to instill in his teams, at first glance it completely suits Dynamo.

In all the teams in which he worked, the specialist tried to stage a fast attacking game.

The bronze season in the 2017/18 Championship turned out to be very indicative in this regard.

Then Fulham ranked first in possession of the ball (57.6%), the number of successful passes (82.9) and by a serious margin - in goals scored during attacking combinations (60).

At Watford, these figures were slightly more modest (50.8% possession and 75.8 successful passes).

It can be assumed that the fans of the blue and white after the arrival of Jokanovic will definitely not be bored, because the teams he leads not only score a lot, but also decently concede.

For example, in the already mentioned season, Fulham scored 79 times, allowed themselves to be upset by rivals - 46 and never broke up in a goalless draw.

But there were enough super-productive meetings: Sheffield United - 5:4, Cardiff - 4:2, Burton - 6:0.

The Serb's favorite formation is the 4-2-3-1 with two defensive players.

In this regard, he is not much different from Schwartz, who relied on 4-1-4-1.

In Dynamo, Slavisha may well change to her.

However, he is much more impressed by the attacking 4-3-3, which was regularly used in Fulham.

The mentor did not leave this arrangement even in the Premier League, where opponents did not allow his wards to dominate like that.

At the same time, they seriously discussed that the specialist in training allegedly did not work on positional defense at all, which, coupled with a large number of newcomers, led to complete anarchy in defense. 

However, according to the former mentor of the blue and white Sergei Silkin, one should not expect Jokanovic to blindly copy the style of Schwartz.

“You can promise to build any kind of game, but everything is determined by the result.

And it’s not at all a fact that the new mentor, following the example of his predecessor, will rely on attack and high pressure.

Worth a penny for a coach who tries to repeat.

Everyone should contribute something of their own, ”the specialist recalled in an interview with RT.

He was also supported by another ex-helmsman of Muscovites Andrei Kobelev, according to whom, at the moment it is impossible to predict what kind of football a foreign coach will try to instill in his wards.

“Now the Serbian is running out of time, because he will take over the team just a few weeks before the start of the new season.

Therefore, he needs to be given five or six rounds.

It is unlikely that he will quickly be able to rebuild the blue and white in his own way.

It is simply impossible to predict how the team will play with him, ”said Kobelev RT.

Catastrophic spending and ability to work with youth

It is possible that in the near future the management will have to delve into what is happening in more detail and spend money seriously, as they did in Fulham after entering the Premier League.

Then, on the eve of returning to the Premier League, the Londoners gave more than €100 million on the transfer market, acquiring such players as Jean-Michel Seri, Andre Zambo Angissa, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Alfie Mawson, Joe Bryan, Fabry and others.

The result was sad - even without the Serb, the team flew back to the Championship.

However, this experience can be called the exception rather than the rule.

Other clubs under Jokanovic did not come close to allocating such funds (Partizan - € 3.5 million, Watford - € 8 million, Maccabi - € 4.4 million, Al-Gharafa - € 6.5 million).

In the remaining teams, they did not spend a single euro under him, limiting themselves to free agents and leases.

However, Kobelev has no doubt: Dynamo will have a busy campaign.

“This is a Serb.

Moreover, a large number of familiar performers will come to Moscow with him: compatriots or Latin Americans.

Yugoslavs cannot live without spending,” Kobelev shared his opinion.

Silkin agreed with him and cited Nuno as an example, who brought a whole "colony" of the Portuguese to the English Wolverhampton.

But there is also an important plus - the ability of Jokanovic to work with young players, of which there are enough in Dynamo.

In almost every team, Slavisha opened a couple of new names.

For example, at Fulham, he was not afraid to give a chance to 16-year-old academy graduate Ryan Sessegnon, and in 2019 the midfielder moved to Tottenham for € 27 million.

Also in London, he regularly released on the field rented from Chelsea Lukas Piazon and Tomas Kalash, at Watford - Matej Vydra and Tommy Hoban, and at Partizan he gave way to several rising stars at once: Adem Ljajic, Lubomir Fejsa and Zoran Tosic .

According to Silkin, the Serb has a lot of work to do at Dynamo to help local youth take a step forward in their development.

“It is difficult to solve serious problems with the existing composition.

And young people still need to form into good players, because so far they have not justified their expectations.

This also applies to Arsen Zakharyan and others.

Firstly, rivals began to take them more seriously, and coaches began to carefully analyze them.

Secondly, the guys somewhere themselves lowered the requirements for themselves, began to be capricious.

For stability, you need to add experienced performers to each line, ”the specialist noted.

Kobelev also believes that it is difficult for blue and white to fight for high places without serious reinforcement.

The club will have to find a replacement for three players of the central axis at once - defender Ivan Ordets and midfielders Sebastian Szymanski and Nicola Moro.

“Everything will be decided by transfers.

But I would like it not to be about one-year-old purchases.

90% of success depends on whether it is possible to competently replace the departed leaders.

Moreover, according to rumors, Daniil Fomin and Zakharyan may also leave.

All this can lead to serious problems in building attacks, ”Kobelev suggested.

In general, experts are pessimistic about the Serb's prospects.

Silkin emphasized that he had never worked with top teams and did not achieve serious results, and the only hit in the Premier League ended in failure.

“Everything will depend on the result.

If he appears, they will begin to praise Jokanovic, no, the leadership will quickly find a replacement.

But we have Igor Kolyvanov played in Italy for ten years.

You could consider his candidacy.

Why are there always foreigners?

Please note that Dynamo achieved the greatest success under Russian coaches.

How many legionnaires have already replaced each other, and there is no sense.

On the other hand, Marko Nikolic came to Lokomotiv and left a good impression.

I liked his work, ”summed up the coach.

Kobelev, on the other hand, urged not to compare the Serb with Schwartz, who had completely different financial opportunities.

“We must not forget, the German had a very good squad.

Especially for him, high-level football players were purchased.

For example, for €10 million they took Denis Makarov, who did not even always go to the base.

Sandro worked very well, but with the full support of the club,” the coach recalled.