Benidorm (from the reporter Sport.cz) – In an interview with Sport.cz and the newspaper Sport, he evaluated the winter movement in the squad, commented on the team’s rejuvenation treatment and whether he will remain on Viktoria’s bench next season.
When you arrived in the summer, you called yourself a bridging coach, the club gave you a one-year contract. When you see how the work is going, do you want to stay with the team?
I will answer in one sentence – I feel the same as in summer.
As I said, I feel the same as I did in the summer. (smile) I’m glad that the transformation of the team is going well. During the autumn, we reached a stage where, based on the international experience gained and the verification of our abilities, we realized that no one had to be afraid of this. This boosted our confidence a lot. The team is in a more stable state than when we took over in the summer.
When will you decide on your future in Pilsen?
We have a specific date with the management, which I will not specify. There must always be results. If they aren’t, things get simpler. I hope that from this point of view we will still confuse the decision. It’s a matter of a few months. You never know what will happen during them.
Can you imagine working in a different role in Pilsen? Martin Dellenbach, a member of the board of directors of Pilsen, admitted this.
I’m glad that they speak well of me, I can imagine a lot. It can certainly be if there is interest and I am still motivated.
Are you creating a new Pilsen? Players who were not even known about in the summer appeared in the base in the fall.
At the start of the summer training, I heard that a certain Paluska was going to try it with us. Dweh wasn’t even here yet. Now one is in the foundation, the other could be in it too. Before he was injured, he played regularly on the Durosinmi tip. Another youngster, Šulc, trained after the EURO 21, when he had no summer training, and immediately jumped out.
Just like Cadu and Hranáč.
Cadu wanted to escape to Ostrava in the summer, he said he was not happy in Pilsen. I told him: you’re not going anywhere, I’ll make you happy in Viktorka if you don’t mess anything up. He didn’t mess up. He has goals, assists. I didn’t expect this. Together with Hranáč, there are six names altogether, which is sixty percent of the lineup.
So are you satisfied with the current staff?
If I tell the complete truth, after the loss of Durosinmi there is still room to unwrap some candy. In attack, it would like to increase the competition even more. Sick, Kliment and Otter are available. The last two can also play on the sides. We have good sides, good stoppers, the midfield is also strengthened. A high-quality striker would increase the team’s chances even more.
But finding such a player is not easy.
Of course, I realize this, the club has some financial possibilities. We had about a two-hour conversation with Mr. Dellenbach. In Pilsen, you will not go the way of shopping for hundreds of millions, this is not how the concept is built.
But there are plenty of foreign players in the squad.
I don’t have a problem with them at all, I’m partial to this path. However, the Pilsen DNA of the cabin, which has always been specific, should remain. Some of the guys who carry it may leave in a year or two. It is therefore important that more and more players take over this Pilsen specialty.
Will it be difficult for you to cut down a large staff?
Extremely. New players arrived, two central midfielders Lukáš Červa and Matěj Valenta from Slavia. Souaré also suggests potential. I think we have strengthened.
Photo: Slavomír Kubeš, CTK
Rookies in Viktoria Plzeň jersey at tests for the start of winter training. From left: Pavel Šulc, Matěj Valenta (newcomer), Lukáš Červ (newcomer), and Eduardo Cadu.
Even if Bucha and Staněk left?
The player compensation from Slavia for Staňko is interesting. I believe that we will replace Bucha.
But he probably won’t be Durosin anymore.
He has been injured for a long time, we played several games without him in the fall. In the league and in Europe. Of course, if Rafiu was available it would be ideal. But it’s not.
He has a choice. Either undergo surgery, be out of action for the next few months, but be able to dream of a big move abroad. Or not solving the problem in the knee, with which he has been playing for a few years, and having it already during the spring.
I don’t want to talk about it. Yes, these two options are on the table. But as a coach, I have no say in that. The player will decide together with the medical team. I don’t know what their verdict will be.
In your eyes, spring will be better without him?
When he is not training in preparation… I would agree with your reasoning.
Cheap to Sparta
Pilsen Spring. That’s the name of the campaign that Viktoria has prepared for its fans to start the spring part of the season. For example, they can buy a discounted package of tickets for duels with Mlada Boleslav, Zlín and Sparta Prague.
You still look fresh. Where do you get your energy?
As I get older and older, I find that I am more resilient to stress. A person has his priorities in life somehow, I know that football is not the navel of the world. Maybe with this philosophy I can get rid of stress and relieve it in my head. That I won’t go crazy over it.
Is your wife reconciled to the fact that you are often away for football?
She is still unhappy and increasingly so. We have constant discussions. The main topic is whether to play football until death and we will get away with a nice old age that we were not together that much. We solve this dilemma together all the time. Maybe she’d rather be here on vacation with me than me being here with the manchaft.
Still, this gives you energy.
It must serve health. I feel good, I don’t have the feelings of an old man in my head. Physically, I am also quite well, I do not suffer from the ailments of pensioners, such as joint pain. So far they have eluded me, I’m waiting for it to arrive. I just enjoy training.
Did you also enjoy Sunday’s warm-up game with Ukrainian Kryvbas, in which your team showed that it can also toughen up?
We are not sheep, we also know how to give from the road. There are resilient players in Pilsen. For example, Lukáš Červ is typologically a warrior. Not even Valenta is a lamb. Pilsen is not a team of elegant ballerinas as it used to be. Viktorka became a man.
