Sergei Yaromko: «The strongest players will play regardless of the league they are in»

Belarus U-21 head coach met the media ahead of the upcoming matches. 

- Were there players you wanted to call up but failed to?

-  Today the list of 23 players is finalised. I met the boys and everyone except for Ilya Lukashevich arrived. He will join us for training after he arrives from Serbia. We have a Vlad Fedosov who got a serious injury missing. As far as the rest are concerned, everyone who I wanted to be here is here. But there were people who simply refused to arrive in the U-21 team's camp. I won't mention those names now though.

- There are six player from the first league on the list. What do you think of the level of the second division if we are talking about the call-ups?

- I will try to be correct here and not compare the Premier league with the first league. Even if some players say that the gap is not that big – it is very big. The situation turns out in such a way that I have to follow not only football players from the first leauge but also from the top division reserve teams. 4 people are on the provisional national team list which means that I have to think of ways to keep the balance. It is a normal situation. The strongest players will play regardless of the league they are in.

- Are you used to working with the national team?

- One can get used to everything. We can draw a parallel with the situation when a football player ends his career and starts working as a coach. At that point he needs to forget his functions as a football player. The schedule and specifics are different. I took on this test and I am up and ready for it. 

- Is the coaching staff fully selected?

- Yes the coaching staff is fully assigned. We had some changes during the last days. It is connected with obvious reasons. For example in a telephone conversation with Aleksandr Kulchi we agreed that it will be better for him to take the offer that he received. That offer can't be combined with work in Belarus U-21 team. At the moment the coaching staff consists of Artem Radkov, Sergei Pavliukovich, Denis Porechin.  The medical staff is the same with only Aleksandr Moroz in addition. And our team manager is Gleb Stakhovski.

- What is the plan for the upcoming training camp?

- Прежде всего, поближе познакомиться с ребятами, сформировать коллектив, чтобы он был в психологическом плане боеспособный. Ну и обозначить те требования, которые футболисты должны выполнять. Постараемся в этот промежуток времени донести то, чтобы это футболисты выполняли.

- В какой стилистике будет играть молодежная сборная?

- Let's not go into to much detail. You can see that the group we have is not easy. We will move from one opponent to the other taking into account their game structure but we will stick to our game too.

- What can you say about our opponent Portugal?.

- We all know Portuguese football. I would like to point out one feature all their teams use a 4-3-3 playing system and prefer to attack and press high. We will build our game taking these moments into account.

- Have you discussed a unified concept of the national teams with Markhel?

- We are in regular contact with Markehl. We have not discussed that topic as the priority is given to the national A-team. I agree with these rules of the game and will work accordingly. 

- Do you fee pressure from the fans and specialists?

- Если бы я первый год работал в футболе, то волновался бы и ощущал. А так нет – спокойная, рабочая обстановка. Всегда тренер и команда работают под давлением. К этому нужно привыкать, это нормальная обстановка. Иногда моменты давления на тренера подстегивают его к плодотворной работе.

- Ставились ли перед вами задачи в группе?

- It is a difficult group. I won't make a secret out of it there is a precise goal in my contract which says – qualification to the European Championship. We need to set impossible, maximum and unachievable goals to get maximum.