Myron Markevych: "The Ukrainian national team needs to be prepared for the World Cup"

Just under a month left until the start of the Ukrainian national team in the Nations League, the first official tournament under the guidance of Andriy Maldera. On the agenda - personnel problems of the "blue-yellow" team. Due to various reasons, many key players are without playing practice. An authoritative domestic coach, Myron Markevych, shared his thoughts on how to deal with this situation.

— Myron Bohdanovych, there is a month left until the first official match under the guidance of the new head coach. What are your expectations regarding the game and the result of our national team?

— Here we need to look at the full cycle, up to the next World Cup, as it is the peak of the country's main team performances. Of course, we want to perform well in the Nations League and qualify for the European Championship. But again, I believe that the main goal is to qualify for the World Cup. We need to prepare the team for this tournament.

— Let's start with the Nations League. So, how tough will the opponents like Hungary, Georgia, and Northern Ireland be for Ukraine?

— I think all opponents have equal chances to win in their group. In our quartet, there are national teams of average level in European football, and the best will be the one better prepared for each match.

— Currently, many key players of our national team are in an uncertain position. For example, Zinchenko, Tsyhankov, Mudryk, Hutsuliak, Yaremchuk. It is said that even Trubin is ready for a transfer, Vanat still lacks playing practice. How much can this worry the head coach?

— Of course, this is a problem. Without playing practice, a player and the team, in general, cannot show their maximum potential. The same Tsyhankov can bring results. Therefore, we would like him to find a club as soon as possible and start playing. The same can be said about other players because we don't have such a large selection of top performers.

— The press discusses Mikhail Mudryk a lot. In your opinion, how much time does such a player need to return to his former level?

— I don't know what he was doing during the last one and a half years of disqualification. However, he is a talented player, and it won't take him long to show us the same Mudryk we are used to seeing.

— Do you think Hutsuliak did the right thing by leaving "Polissya" and remaining without a club for a long time?

— He created problems for himself. But I don't think that this potential loss for the national team can be critical. There are players to play in his position. For example, Hennadii Synchuk from "Montreal" or, let's say, Yan Kostenko, who is performing well at "Karpaty". It's different with Tsyhankov and Mudryk - they are systematically important players for the national team.

— And Zinchenko?

— Oleksandr has a serious injury. It is unlikely that he will be counted on in the national team in the near future.

— There are rumors that "Kharkiv" is interested in Roman Yaremchuk, who, apparently, will not stay at "Olympiacos".

— In my opinion, the head coach needs to be more daring in including young players in the squad. Again, there are Synchuk, Redushko, Ponomarenko. The coach needs to be given time to, as I have already said, try to qualify for the final stage of the World Cup - the main football tournament of the four-year cycle.