Date
Author
Андрей ВДОВИН; Загреб--Москва
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Igor Semshov: Hiddink is a real Russian
— Soon it will be exactly one year since Guus Hiddink led the Russian national team. You were constantly invited to training camps and became a member of the main team. Do you feel by what principles Hiddink builds his team?
- Everything is built on trust in the players, counting on their professionalism. He himself selects those football players who, firstly, correspond to the level of the national team, secondly, fit his model, and thirdly, in terms of human qualities. But if you noticed, the bulk of those players who were invited to the first training camp remained on the team. In my opinion, Hiddink already has a certain pool of 25-27 players on whom he is betting. At the same time, the path to the national team is not closed to anyone. New faces appear on the team. The last example is Budyansky.
- He selects players based on their human qualities. What kind of person is he himself?
- If he were not Dutch, I would say that he is a real Russian.
- You said that Hiddink selects players to suit his model. What is its model, game concept?
- That’s the thing, he prepares for each opponent separately. He doesn't have any one pattern. Sometimes during one match, out of 11 players, Hiddink can make three formations and rearrange the game several times.
- Sometimes it turns out very unexpectedly. For example, in the last match with Croatia, when we were finally pressed to the goal, Hiddink began to play with three strikers.
- Indeed, most of our coaches would probably release an extra player with defensive functions. But this is the difference - Hiddink is not afraid to take risks.
- But not in the case of you. In Russia, you are considered an attacking player. Hiddink sees you as a defensive defensive midfielder and even in the match with Andorra, it seemed, forbade you to go forward.
- I’ve already gotten used to this position in the national team after several matches. If the coach sees me there and thinks I can do it, then no problem. This position is not new for me, the main thing is that it is in the center of the field. And then, I'm not the only one. Hiddink uses many players in the national team differently from how they play in clubs. As for the risk, it is only justified near someone else’s penalty area, this is what Hiddink makes clear to us. The main thing is a zero in your own goal, and then you can try to score something in front. And with Andorra my task was to keep the ball in front of me. Don’t expose your rear and don’t push forward: there were already a lot of people there. And help the attack with long passes to the flanks.
— What was your attitude towards the match with Croatia then?
- We were warned that the fans would push the Croats forward from the very beginning of the match. They will also actively spend the end of each half. We had to play tighter in these minutes and not let the opponent turn around. I think we succeeded. Dangerous situations arose at our goal only after set pieces.
- Hiddink has been talking all this year about the need to cultivate the mentality of a winner. Do we really not have it?
- He talks about confidence and liberation. It's one thing to play against Andorra and another thing to play against Croatia. In Zagreb, perhaps we lacked this psychology.
Has this confidence increased over the past year?
- Yes. Hiddink recognizes us, we recognize Hiddink, a team is being created.
-- Will this team be able to reach the finals of the European Championship?
- For now, the situation is still the same: four teams - we, Israel, Croatia and England - are equally vying for exit from the group. I think nothing will be clear for us until the last round.
- So even after our two matches with England nothing will be decided?
- No, well, of course, playing with them can affect a lot. But what good is it if we beat England and lose to Israel? We haven’t prepared for the match with the English yet, but we watched several games, analyzing other opponents in the group. It is not known in what condition they will approach the autumn games, but it seems they failed. No team is immune from this.