“Analysis of the short winter break of “miners” by Oleksiy Slivchenko”, — write: sport.ua
The first opponent in the official match for “Shakhtar” in 2025 will be the French “Brest”. This team, which many pundits clearly underestimated at the time of the draw, currently sits seventh in the overall Champions League standings. It is Brest who are France’s best team in the current run of Europe’s top competition, level on points with Lille, but ahead of the Great Danes in additional figures, and well above Monaco (16th) and “Paris Saint-Germain” (25th place).
Preparations for the match against “Brest”, which will take place on January 22 and will be held in Gelsenkirchen, being nominally home for “Miners”, the current champion of Ukraine started unusually early – already on January 4. Marino Pushych’s team held a training camp in Turkey, playing three control matches. And we will now talk about the most important things that happened to the “miners” during this period…
Pushych stayed. Obviously, he was given a chance for the Champions League Perhaps the key question of the unusually short winter offseason for Shakhtar was whether the club’s management would replace the head coach. The Bosnian Marino Pušić, who showed himself excellently last season, in the current UPL draw has not yet demonstrated the ability to defend the title of the best team of the country with the “miners”. The Donetsk team went to the “Zimivlya” only in third place in the standings, 5 points behind “Alexandria”, which is in second place, and as much as 10 points ahead of “Dynamo”, which is in the lead.
Rumors about Pushich’s possible departure began to circulate in the press at the end of November, which the Bosnian only fueled with his interview, where he stated his desire to discuss his future with Shakhtar management in the winter.
shakhtar.com. Shakhtar continues to trust Marino Pushych Shakhtar held a meeting in Turkey with Pushych at the helm, and this is an obvious demonstration that the club management of “Miners” continues to trust the Bosnian, giving him time to correct the situation. Undoubtedly, the Donetsk team is still able to catch up with “Dynamo” in the UPL (though, rather, only theoretically), but most likely, they did not want to change the coach at “Shakhtar” precisely because of the need to continue participating in the general stage of the Champions League in January. Matches against Brest and Borussia Dortmund will be a clear litmus test of Pushych’s real abilities and will probably have a lot to do with his future. It is possible that Marino was left solely because of the Champions League, since in the UPL Shakhtar can hope for a championship only if their main competitor – Dynamo – starts to “fall” in the spring, and this is extremely unlikely, given the complex and balanced the work performed by Shovkovsky.
Positive results against the background of a lackluster game As already mentioned above, in January in Turkey, “Shakhtar” played three control matches. The first – against “Dynamo” Zagreb – ended in a draw for “Miners” (2:2), and the last two, held on the same day, the Ukrainian team ended with victories against representatives of Bulgaria: first, the nominally second team of “Shakhtar” beat CSKA Sofia (1: 0), and then the potential base defeated “Ludogorets” led by Igor Jovichevich (4:0).
It is worth noting that the meeting for the “miners” could have ended with three victories, but the reigning champion of Ukraine allowed “Dynamo” Zagreb to win already in the compensated time – at the 90th + 5th minute. And this is a kind of alarm bell in terms of how well everything is in teams with concentration. Despite the fact that against the Croats, the “orange and black” were the first to concede, and then showed their character and managed to turn the tide of the match, leading 2:1 literally until the very last seconds.
The game against CSKA Sofia is notable for the fact that Marino Pushych allowed many reserve players to play – Fesyun, Gram, Nazarina, Farina, as well as players from the U-19 team Hlushchenko and Drozd. The last two frankly did not spoil the porridge, demonstrating that they are trustworthy in official matches, at least at the UPL level. Moreover, against the background of Drozd’s progress, it is extremely surprising why Shakhtar was actively negotiating and was ready to go to significant costs in the situation with Krupskyi… But we have already reflected on the level of trust of Shakhtar in its students very recently:
Victory in the match against CSKA Shakhtar was brought by young talent Viktor Tsukanov. He perfectly connected to the attack and completed an excellent cross from Shved, who came on as a substitute very successfully, but in general his game continues to look extremely episodic – at times Maryan impresses, but in other situations he remains completely invisible.
And Shakhtar himself frankly did not impress in all three matches, as Pushych did not continue to talk about. Even the game against “Ludogorets”, which ended with the defeat of the Bulgarians (4:0), became absolutely typical for “miners” this season. The Ukrainian team demonstrated fast and attacking football only in fragments, which gave a result. Otherwise, at the first opportunity, “Shakhtar” gladly used the opportunities to calm down the match, systematically moving the ball in the first and second thirds. Once again, there was no high-intensity football, during which the “miners” would really try to drive the opponent, making maximum use of team interactions and individual advantage. I would like to attribute this to the traditional loads under which the players are at training sessions…
Confidence in Azarova, Kevin’s performance, hope in Marlon Gomez Now let’s talk about the personnel decisions of Pushych’s headquarters, which jumped out at the eyes. As already mentioned, the matches against CSKA and Ludogorets were held on the same day, and there the Bosnian apparently modeled a situation where the so-called nearest reserve was the basis for the first meeting, and those on whom Marino is counting on, as in the second football players of the starting team right now.
The Brazilian Kevin showed himself absolutely brilliantly. In the match against “Dynamo” Zagreb, he distinguished himself with a very high-quality scored goal – on individual skill. And against Ludogorets, Kevin absolutely shone in all his glory: scored himself and assisted compatriots Marlon Gomez and Eguinaldo. Speed, technique and field vision are what Kevin has and what Shakhtar must use effectively in Champions League matches, where the opponent a priori gives the attacking players of the “Miners” more free zones than it happens in traditional UPL matches.
It is also worth noting Pushych’s trust in the left f Ulbek Azarov. It seems that it was the Georgian, and not the Brazilian Pedro Enrique, that the Bosnian specialist recorded for the basis of the Champions League match with “Brest” and “Borussia”. And the third goal of “Miners” against “Ludogorets” showed that Azarov is able to interact very effectively with Kevin, revealing his strong qualities. In addition, unlike Pedro Enrique, Herakli is much better at dealing with challenges directly in defense, which makes life easier for Kevin. This relationship should simply be the main one in the Champions League, where Pusic previously persistently put Pedro Enrique on the left in defense, and when he received a red card, then at Bayern Marino pushed Matvienko to the flank of the defense, placing Gram in the center, and Azarov continued to marinate on the bench…
shakhtar.com. Kevin (left) and Irakli Azarov (No. 16) showed great interaction at the meeting It is important to emphasize the work of Marlon Gomez. At least at the meeting in Turkey, the Brazilian showed that he is capable of being more useful to the team than the rather inert Bondarenko. That is why it was the Brazilian who played against Ludogorets, where there was a potential base, but the Ukrainian played against CSKA. And in general, the trio in the center of the field Marlon Gomez – Kryskiv – Sudakov right now looks probably the most organic and potentially effective for Shakhtar. All three are quite versatile, and can practice both defense and attack, changing positions and thereby confusing the opponent. Such tricks will not work with Bondarenko or Stepanenko…
Kelsey’s departure and many transfer rumors And in conclusion – about personnel. First of all, it is worth noting the departure of Venezuelan center forward Kevin Kelsey to Portland Timbers, who just returned to Shakhtar from a loan from Cincinnati in January. The young talent immediately expressed confidence that he could be useful to the “miners” in the second part of the season, but he was sold for $6 million, if we believe insiders.
The sale of Kelsey means that Shakhtar never found real buyers for Lassina Traore. At the end of December, the media actively gossiped about the fact that the “miners” were looking for employment options for the Burkinabe. There were even quite specific directions – France, where Lassina was offered to “Lance” and “Reims”, as well as Brazil, where “Flamengo” had views on the African, where the former head of the selection department of “Shakhtar” Jose Botu recently came as sports director. However, for the time being, Traore remains at Shakhtar, but for some reason, the club preferred to sell Kelsey, who is much more promising in all respects. There is a feeling that the management of “miners” will still regret this decision…
Another potentially high-profile Shakhtar transfer in the “outbound” category should not be overlooked. We are talking about the team’s main right winger, 28-year-old Oleksandr Zubkov. Subjective interest in him was also shown from overseas – a new project for MLS “San Diego”. But there they decided that paying more than 5 million dollars for a football player at a fairly mature age, who is not a star of one of the top European leagues, and then also providing him with a large salary, using the designated player rule in MLS, is somehow completely illogical. According to rumors, Zubkov’s agents continue to look for other options for their client in the overseas championship, but so far the most obvious contender for Oleksandr remains the Turkish Trabzonspor. Moreover, the Turks are actively trading the winger and have already offered 4 or 6 million euros for him. “Shakhtar” allegedly wants at least 8, and even 10 million, which is why they have not been able to come to an agreement yet. However, it is interesting that Zubkov did not play either against CSKA or Ludogorets, and his injuries were not publicly reported. At the same time, Oleksandr had a warm conversation with Igor Jovichevich, dressed in a game uniform, due to which many people assumed that they decided not to use Zubkov precisely because of the transfer to another club, which is already actively preparing.
shakhtar.com. Oleksandr Zubkov (#11) may soon leave Shakhtar As for incoming transfers, there are also rumors around Shakhtar. In addition to the above-mentioned Krupsky, who preferred to move to Metalist 1925, the Miners are currently trading 19-year-old Uruguayan Peñarol centerback Juan Rodriguez, for whom they are willing to pay about $7 million. Also, the club continues to court Brazilians, one of whom, whose name has not yet been revealed (probably, it could be Enrique Carmo from Sao Paulo or Wesley from Al-Nasra, whom Donetsk residents were actively interested in earlier). Ukrainians are allegedly ready to pay 15+ million euros.
And rumors continue to “send” the defender of “Alexandria” Ivan Kalyuzhny to “Shakhtar”, plus sometimes completely wild gossip gets into the media, such as, for example, the news about the alleged interest of the “miners” in 33-year-old Frank Fabra from “Boka Juniors”.
But while the rumors about Fabra are most likely a figment of the imagination of some South American insiders, the interest of Brazilian champions and reigning Copa Libertadores champions Botafogo in Marlon Gomez is more than real. The Brazilians are ready to pay 10 million euros for the midfielder, and Shakhtar is not satisfied with that yet. It is expected that the negotiations will be continued, although it is not a fact that the club from Rio de Janeiro will still decide to go to the end, because at the same time, according to rumors, “Botafogo” is close to freeing the other two from the “swamps” Brazilian midfielders – Bitelo and Wendela, for whom they are ready to pay plus or minus the same money as for Marlon Gomez.
Be that as it may, the time remaining before the closing of the transfer window promises to be very busy for Shakhtar. But a lot of decisions will probably still depend on the results in the Champions League. After all, buying a new Brazilian for 15+ million euros, even without guarantees of playing in the Champions League next season and under a potentially completely different coach, is a serious gamble, and it is far from certain that under the current conditions, the owner of the “Miners” Rinat Akhmetov will agree to go.