Break, Build and Hope for No Losses: What to Expect from the Country's Top Teams in 2020

Everything you need to know about Shakhtar, Dynamo and the Ukraine national team during the winter break.

Ukrainian football has been in its winter hibernation for a couple of weeks now. Shakhtar and Dynamo will play their next official matches at the end of February, while the Ukraine national team begins preparations for Euro 2020 with a friendly against France on March 27. For now the players are enjoying their holidays, but very soon they will have to get back into training. As for coaches and officials, they are already in full swing preparing for the second half of the season — they have their hands full. 

Shakhtar

In the Ukrainian championship Shakhtar remain unquestionably the best, which, given the strength of their squad and the level of their rivals, is hardly surprising. However, Luís Castro's first six months as successor to Paulo Fonseca, who left for Roma, can be considered unsuccessful. That is because in this Champions League campaign Shakhtar could have been expected to do more — two draws with Dinamo Zagreb with five goals conceded and a home humiliation by Atalanta are hardly something fans and club management can be satisfied with.

For now, though, Castro's future at Shakhtar is not under threat — at least for the time being. The Miners secured a European spring by finishing third in their Champions League group, and now will try their luck in the Europa League, where at the end of February they face Benfica. Castro, who previously had no serious coaching experience outside his home country, will be judged in the spring. Most likely, though, he will be judged not even by results but by how successfully he carries out the rebuilding the team needs.

Mircea Lucescu left Shakhtar in May 2016, yet even after nearly four years one can say that this Shakhtar — is still Lucescu's Shakhtar. The team's style of play has, of course, changed somewhat under Fonseca and Castro, and new faces have appeared in the squad, yet the key players are the same footballers as four years ago — with the only difference that they have passed their peak football age and have clearly lost the motivation to move to Europe's top leagues. Marlos and Taison — 31, Taras Stepanenko — 30, and Ismaily will turn the same age in January. Moraes is no longer a boy either, even though he arrived after Lucescu left.

Since Mircea's departure Shakhtar have done well in the transfer market, selling Fred to Manchester United for huge money. However, as things stand, the Miners cannot boast players ready to move whose sale would significantly replenish the club's coffers. The talented Brazilians are certainly in the squad, but overall they are not yet ready even for Shakhtar: Maykon is only starting to regain form after a serious injury, Marcos Antônio and Tete are not winning competition from more experienced teammates yet, Markinhos Cipriano has 191 minutes played this season, and Vitão has zero.

During the long winter break and extended training camps, Castro not only needs to build the team's play well, but together with management make several painful but necessary decisions. One of the first such decisions should be parting ways with Taison, who, as team captain, did not hide his disappointment last summer when he was not allowed to move to Italy, and now openly states he will not stay with the team after his contract expires. Yes, it will be difficult to earn big money from his sale, but continuing to bet on a capricious star will likely be more costly.

Shakhtar should also already be thinking about who in the near future can replace Andriy Pyatov in goal and Júnior Moraes up front. Despite their age, they still set a fairly high bar, but their potential replacements are not just short of playing time in half-fit matches — they simply don't exist. Longtime team leader Marlos already plays less often due to injuries and physical condition, so preparations for his departure from the first team should also begin this winter.

The result of the two-legged clash with Benfica in the Europa League at this stage does not seem so important. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, Shakhtar hardly should count on winning the tournament now, so it makes sense to focus on building a renewed and cohesive team with an eye to next season and the next Champions League. Their huge advantage over rivals in the domestic championship makes this possible almost painlessly.

Dynamo

Like Shakhtar, Ukraine's vice-champions also ended 2019 far from their best. After failing to beat Lugano at home in the last round of the Europa League group stage, Dynamo ended their European campaign this season. And, like Shakhtar, Kyiv's team needs to reboot this winter and go through a revolution — possibly even more large-scale than that of their main rival in Ukraine.

The priority task, of course, is organizing play. Oleksiy Mykhailychenko had to take over the team in mid-season, when there was simply no time to implement his own style of play. However, now the head coach of Kyiv's team has enough time both to explain to the players what he wants to see on the pitch and to strengthen the squad during the transfer window.

According to Mykhailychenko himself, Dynamo will try to sign "one or two" players in the winter. No specific positions were named, but it is clear that a striker is definitely the focus. According to unofficial information, the club's management has five candidates for the attack: Mirko Marić (Osijek), Andraž Šporar (Slovan), Umar Sadiq (on loan to Partizan from Roma), and two more players, one of whom holds an Israeli passport.

Besides acquisitions, Kyiv's club also needs to work on sales. Reportedly, Dynamo have already settled on a list of players to leave, including several prominent legionnaires such as Tomáš Kádár, Fran Sol and the recently signed Mohamed Kadiri and Gerson Rodrigues. Clubs are also being sought for Carlos Sambrano and Sidicley. Moreover, the vice-champions have already lost Denys Harmash, who spent 13 years of his career at the club.

Dynamo have plenty of work to do in January, both for the coaching staff and management. And sorting it all out will not be easy. Given that Mykhailychenko hardly has a long leash — Ihor Surkis may well start asking him for results as early as summer.

Ukraine national team

Andriy Shevchenko's team, after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, performed more than well in the following period, confidently winning its group in the Nations League and triumphing no less convincingly in qualifying for Euro 2020. Now the Ukrainian national team needs to consolidate this decent, but still local success — and shine in the final tournament of the Euros.

All the prerequisites for this are in place. In terms of the football the Ukrainian national team plays, Shevchenko has taken a huge step forward. Shevchenko's coaching staff has managed to change the team's mentality: the side previously was, if not under all of his predecessors then under almost all of them, more afraid of opponents than capable of instilling fear itself. In the Euro qualifiers the Ukraine national team showed that it must now be taken seriously — this team is not afraid to play with the ball and is ready to be aggressive in attack.

Clearly, the players have embraced Sheva's ideas and are ready to execute them at their maximum. Despite having several players from Europe's top leagues, it is hard to say that our national team, in terms of squad quality, is ready to compete with the strongest football nations. However, in addition to good tactical preparation, Shevchenko has also shown himself to be an excellent motivator.

In various interviews his players speak of him exclusively in complimentary terms, all noting the excellent atmosphere in the dressing room, but perhaps the most notable words belong to Roman Yaremchuk. The young striker, who plays for Ghent in Belgium, does not hide that from Sheva one can hear not only some game tips but also get a good psychological charge.

The story before the match with Serbia (which fans already call one of the best in the entire history of our independence) is more than telling. Yaremchuk recalls that before going out onto the pitch the mood in the Ukrainian dressing room was such that not winning was not an option — despite our status as the clear favourite, Sheva gave his players a serious dressing-down: there were harsh words and flying bottles. And, most importantly, an excellent result came out of it.

Half a year before the Euros, Shevchenko faces several tasks. First, to refine those game elements that are not yet working smoothly — despite all the words of praise, one cannot speak of full order, since besides the Serbs and Portuguese, one must also recall the laboured wins over Luxembourg. Second, he needs to properly run a series of friendly matches to prepare for the opponents awaiting us at Euro 2020.

For now, though, what seems most important is something else — just that the footballers who are virtually irreplaceable for the national team avoid injuries. And there are many of them. And the bench is modest, whatever one says.