We talked with Shakhter Karagandy trainer, Viktor Kumykov about the new season, and what he expects after a groundbreaking performance last year.
-How is pre-season training going? What condition are the players in?
Everything is going according to plan; we’re training and playing friendly games. The main goals here are placed on tactics and fitness. Overall the team is progressing very well.
-How important is it to win friendly matches?
I won’t say that they aren’t important, wins are needed to keep the players’ moral high. Shakhter Karagandy always plays to win, if we end up losing –we can’t say that we played well. If we win – then we can be happy with our performance. It doesn’t matter if it’s a training, friendly or let alone an official match we always look to win. What ends up happening is a different story, not everything always works out.
-Is the team rooster complete, are there any more transfers in the works?
We still have one more position to fill, on the flank, once we fill that position the team should be ready to compete in the Europa League.
-Can you confirm that there are still 2 spots left on the team for foreign players (Kazakhstani team have a limit on the number of foreign player allowed in a squad)?
Yes, we have 2 vacancies. One of which we want to fill as soon as possible and the other one sometime before the start of the Europa League, most likely it will be a center midfielder.
-Has Aldin Dzidic gotten his Kazakhstani citizenship yet?
He will receive it any day now, we had sent all of the documents in last year and the only thing left is to formalize the papers.
-Does arrival of Fernandez (Yago) mean that one of the current defenders will leave?
You know, nobody will be leaving the team. We only have 4 central defenders: Vasiljevic, Maliy, Dzidic and Fernandez. That’s the right number of defenders a team should have. If you remember, last year we had some problems with defenders and since we usually play with 3 defenders, only 1 man will sit out per game. All of them will be part of the team.
-Do you already know what the goals for this season are for Shakhter?
Pretty much, Shakhter doesn’t play without setting high goals. Our job this season is to win the domestic league, to make it into the Group Stage of the Europa League and to perform better than last year.
-Who do you consider to be the main contenders for winning the Premier League this season?
-This year there will more teams than ever. Other than Shakhter there is FC Aktobe, Kairat Almaty, probably FC Astana. And as always some dark horse will be a contender as will. So I think four or five teams will be fighting for the championship.
-You compatriot, Yuri Krasnozhan has taken over the Kazakhstani national team, what do you think of this move?
I actually meet with him a few days ago, he came to look at one of our games. I talked with him, he asked me my opinion of the championship, the players, who would be a viable candidate for the national team. I think that’s the right thing to do, to travel to various clubs and scout all of the players. We are both from Russia, so I’ve known him for a while; we’ve had a good working relationship. The federation made the right choice in picking Krasnozhan.
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