Offsideplus.az presents this interview:
- How would you assess the first half of the Premier League 2020/21 season?
- If we start from the beginning, we can say that at the beginning of the season we parted ways with some of our key players. Along with the start of the 2020/2021 season, we knew that a difficult debut awaited us in the Europa League. Despite the lack of time, we first renewed the contracts with most of our players and went to Gabala for a training camp with the addition of several new players. Although we struggled during the pre-season, we were able to complete the squad after the return, including new transfers. In the debut match of the Premier League, we lost to "Keshla" with a minimal score, and then played one of the most important games in the history of the city and the club. In fact, the draw in the Europa League did not make us laugh. We competed against a very difficult team. Despite this, The team did not make a bad impression in the game with the northern Macedonian club "Shkendiya". But in the end, the experience spoke for itself, and as a result we lost and stopped the fight. Over time, we saw that we fought against a very strong opponent. "Shkendija" passed another stage after us, losing the game against the English club "Tottenham" and stopped the fight. This team is currently the leader of the Northern Macedonian championship. Despite losing the first two games of the season, I could see progress in the team. Then we got a successful schedule with consecutive victories. Completing the first round as a leader was a clear example of being in shape and working properly. During the championship, I said that in order to continue at this pace, it is necessary to have a large staff. In such a situation, an unexpected injury could "shatter" everything, and it happened. When we were in the best shape, we suddenly lost our key players in two positions. The injury of Suleyman Ahmadov in the U-21 national team and the injury of our striker Ali Gurbani, who scored 6 goals in the first round, for two months, affected our game. No matter how many alternatives we thought of, injuries have ruined our game system. Another issue was the effects of the known COVID-19 infection on the eve of the last three encounters. Imagine that you are preparing for a match against Gabala in the 11th round, the game is postponed while you are at the hotel the day before, and the match is postponed for two days. Two days later, before that game, several players fell ill and had difficulty building the squad. Then it was very difficult for us to go to two games after a large part of the team was infected and after a two-week delay. My players, who were without training for two weeks after a serious illness, struggled in the match against "Zira", but in the last match against "Sabah" we were completely exhausted. Of course, these are not excuses for the points we lost. In general, my players were able to show themselves in all respects until the winter break.
- Were you able to achieve your goals before the winter break?
- After the first round, which we completed as a leader before the winter break, despite the unsuccessful games in the second half, I think we did our job. We are currently in the 4th place and 4 points behind the 3rd place. In general, I think we have seen the fruits of our work for half a year. During this period, 6 players from Sumgayit FC were invited to our "A" national team, which could not but make us happy. In the past, we tried to train young players, and we partially achieved this. In 13 rounds in the Premier League, we used the services of a total of 7 limit players. There were such matches that there were 3 limit players in our starting lineup. FC "Sumgayit", which is constantly working for the development of young players, will continue this work. During the last 6 months, we regularly invited young players from our academy to our trainings. As a result, we have signed professional contracts with 3 new young players during this period.
- We would like you to inform us about the ongoing winter training camp ...
- We started training for the second stage of the Premier League on January 4. In the first stage, which took place at the Kapital Bank Arena in Sumgayit, we worked harder on physical training. After the 4-day program, we started the training camp at the "National Team Training Center" in Mardakan, starting yesterday. Our footballers abroad have already returned from their families, and we have been training with the full staff since yesterday. We plan to hold two test matches during the training camp, which will last until the 14th of the month. So, on January 10, we will face Zira at Dalga Arena, and on January 14, we will face Gabala at home. We are working on a different program related to the pandemic. Despite the lack of time, we want to make maximum preparations. Obviously, we will have competition and more difficult games after the break.
- Are new players expected to be involved in the squad?
- We know we need new players. Work is underway on this. The first player to come was the winger Jabir Amirli. We rented it from Neftchi until the end of the season. There are several players we are currently negotiating with. If the negotiations are successful, we will have new transfers in the coming days. First of all, I want to see healthy competition in every position. After the break, a difficult calendar awaits us. If we can do what we want, I believe we can see a completely different Sumgayit after the winter.
- Your expectations for the rest of the season ...
- It is known that this year's winter gathering was different from other years. In previous years, we gradually formed the team by playing test matches against foreign clubs in Antalya. This time we have little time and the team is seriously ill. We want to get the team ready in maximum form during the two-week training camp. As always, my confidence in my players is endless. We want to do our best to qualify for the Europa League again. We have the opportunity to do so. One of our main goals, as always, will be to identify young people and give new names to the country's football. Our goal from the beginning of the season was to form a fighting, determined team in the championship. Thankfully, we have achieved this. Another important goal is to increase the number of players we give to national teams. We were pleased with the performance of the players invited to the last training camp of the "A" national team, U-21. We are always in touch with the national team's coaches. We hope that the number of players leaving Sumgayit for national teams will be higher in the next training camp.
