Football players of “Metallurg” Zaporozhye were the first among the clubs of Premier League who started working after vacation. From 22nd to 30th of December the first periodical training is planned for the team. Acting head coach Oleg Lutkov is talking about the guys’ mood.
    - Almost all the guys started working, - said coach of Zaporozhye players. – Only foreign players didn’t start working. They will join the team only after New Year’s holidays. Football players look good after taking a rest and they are ready to achieve new results.
    - Has anyone protested against such an early start of the training?
    - No, they have not. It is simple training with one-time exercises. Everyone is working hard. I have not seen anyone dissatisfied.
    - Is there anyone sick or injured?
    - No, there isn’t. Thanks to our doctors everything is ok. Our club sick quarters are empty.
    - It is your second time when you work as a coach of “Metallurg” Zaporozhye. Can you compare the current team and team of those times?
    - Of course, there is something to compare. At those times our foreign players were a prevailing force. It seems to me there were 18 of them. Now the majority of our players are young local footballers and foreign players play in another way. So I can say that it is more pleasant to work now.
    - However, you achieved success training “Metallurg”. Let me remind your matches against “Leads”…
    - You are talking about Euro cups. Everyone is playing completely devoting himself to such matches. Concerning the championship it was another thing.
    - How do you estimate team’s performance in the first part of the season?
    - My mark is B. Of course, they failed to score some points at some matches. They could play better. However, we should take into consideration that there are a lot of young players in our team. I can say that we lacked experience and confidence sometimes. Still, everything is ahead.
    - What positions should be enhanced?
    - One cannot say that we will run to the transfer market. We would like to purchase an attacking mid-fielder. We have a good centre line. Still, we need a player of such position in order to have a possibility to vary some tactic formations.
    - Are you doing anything in order to solve this problem?
    - Our selectionists are working at this direction. It is too early to name some surnames as everything is only in process of negotiations. The situation will be clear later when we come to the foreign periodical training.
    - Will anyone of the present football players of “Metallurg” leave the team?
    - No, they won’t. All our leaders - Perisic, Postranskyy, Silyuk, Stepanenko – have the acting contracts. Now we are carrying on negotiations with Cheliadzinski on signing a new labour contract. I think he will stay with us.
    - There is a gossip that “Metallist” is interested in Olexiy Godin…
    - I know that these gossips exist more than a year. I just want to say that we need such football player as Godin. It is our leader and captain. We are not planning to say him good bye.
    - Tell us please about the team’s plans for the winter break.
    - Now we are going to hold training on the 30th of December. After that we are planning to carry out a mini-football tournament. Even the team of the coaches will take part in it. Then we will take a rest for New Year on the 3rd of January. We will work a day in Zaporozhye and then we will come to Austria.
    - Are there any sparring matches planned?
    - We will pay all attention to physical fitness. We will carry out sparring on the second foreign periodical training in Spain.
    - What are your goals for the spring?
    - We have the only task – to get into the Euro cup zone.
    - Are current “Metallurg” able to do that?
    - I think, they are. We are lucky to have such a calendar – we accept all the leaders at home. We have a good young squad and support of our supervision. Everything depends on us.
    - What do you think of your position “Acting head coach”?
    - It is ok. I have good relations with all the guys. It doesn’t matter whether I am an acting head coach or head coach.
    Alexandr Zaychuk.