– Tomasha, just recently on July 29 turned 80 years old, the legendary coach Mircea Lucescu. Did you somehow congratulate your former mentor?
– Of course! I am very glad that I had the opportunity to meet this coach and a person. He gave me a lot. It can be said that Lucescu has taught me a lot. He may have taught me a little differently to look at football compared to how I looked at him. Of course, I called him. Call! Most importantly, he wished him health, happiness, good luck and that he would have what he wants. To make him happy from what he does to make him happy.
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I invited him to the Czech Republic for my farewell match, which took place on the first of June. But, unfortunately, he had a national team since May 29. The Romanian national team, the head coach of which he is, was preparing for matches. And the Czech national team began on June 2. So I made a farewell match on June 1, and on June 2 I went to the gathering. But I invited Lucescu.
And when I called Lucescu on my birthday, he said I saw video and photos from this match. He said he really liked and sorry that he could not come. I replied that nothing was wrong and I hope that we would see you somewhere else, perhaps on the matches of the national teams. But I am very glad that I had the opportunity to meet this coach and this person. As a coach and as a person, I respect him. He made a lot for me in my career.
– A whole coaching school was passed in front of Shakhtar. He was fortunate enough to train a star Inter with Ronaldo, Samorano and other legends. What is the most important thing he changed in your view of football?
– I came to Shakhtar as a Czech player. And by mentality and play, you can compare a Czech football player a little with Ukrainian or Polish. We have a team, for example, another Mariusz Lewandowski. I think Lucescu gave us confidence that we can also play technical football with the exit of defense. Mr. Lucescu forced the team to go through central defenders, flank defenders, central midfielders. And just get out of defense with the ball on the leg. Now, if you watch football, they try to do all the teams. But at the time I came to Shakhtar, perhaps no team from the Czech and Ukrainian championships played in such a style to get out of defense. At this time, perhaps, Barcelona played it under Guardiol. But Guardiola, so to speak, is a pupil of Lucescu. He also mentions Lucescu.
I think he gave me a lot of confidence that it is possible to go out of defense through the midfield in the attack. But it is not Tiki-such or slow football. Sometimes, if possible and should arrange a fast attack, you can make a diagonal. Dima Chygrynsky and Yara Rakitsky have accelerated the game many times by translating the ball on Dario SrNU, who played on the right flank almost in the attack. And it also helped us a lot.
Therefore, I cannot say that Lucescu was forced to play only a short pass. No! He simply gave confidence that it was necessary to get out of defense with the ball on the leg. But if you start to press you and you see that Dario Srna is free on the right flank, why not give a pass for 80 meters? And he can either go in the free area or can serve the ball. Therefore, I gave me a lot in this regard. And I am very glad that I met in my career with this coach and with this person.
– And often Shakhtar, if confidently beat someone, attacked the opponent’s gate, connecting the line of defense! Attached the whole team of the gate!
– Yes! He did not want one attacker or one attacking midfielder. This is not his approach that the attacker and the midfielder will kill 20 goals, and the rest are only defending. He forced the central defender if he has a free area, attack and attack. No problem! At the time when Lucescu was headed by Shakhtar, I think he was a very strong trainer!
– Even to take, for example, those Shakhtar matches with a star of Barcelona Guardiola. And the Donetsk team played approximately equal to the Catalans, the colors of which were then defended by Messi, Henry, Eto’o and other legends!
– Then the Championship of Ukraine played Dynamo Kyiv, Metalist Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernomorets Odesa, Carpathians Lviv, Zorya Lugansk. And in that championship there were 4-5 teams very strong. Very strong Latin Americans played for Metalist. The Kharkiv team was played by Tyson, Marlos, Coelio and more. Dnipro is the same! Mateus played for them. And then there were a lot of players of very good quality. Of course, this was all exacerbated by the Ukrainian Championship. And this intensified the players who played in this championship. This applies to both Ukrainians and foreigners. They all aggravated them.
Source: Sport.ua