An important week for Khatskevych: Dynamo face Shakhtar and Bruges ahead

Khatskevych's 3rd season at Dynamo = 3rd season without the Champions League and the title?

On Tuesday, Ukraine's runners-up lost the first leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, narrowly losing away to Bruges. Of course, Kyiv's team may well turn the tie around in the return match, but without having scored an away goal and given the football it has displayed... In short, Houston, we have a problem.

At the end of last season, Oleksandr Khatskevych's contract with Dynamo was running out. The media reported various things: that Khatskevych would stay, and that a replacement would be brought in from abroad, but most people close to the club made it clear that even President Ihor Surkis himself did not know what he would do next until the very end. In the end, he signed a new contract.

During the off-season, Dynamo's coaching staff received a new batch of newcomers and, despite a not very convincing pre-season, started well: after beating Shakhtar in the Super Cup, two Lviv teams were beaten in the league. However, none of these matches could compare in importance with the match in Bruges: in Odesa it was essentially an exhibition game against a team that is only just getting to know its head coach, and it is somewhat awkward to talk seriously about the competitiveness of our league. In Bruges, Dynamo lost.

What is wrong with Dynamo?

It is important to understand that this is not a crisis. The problem is that Dynamo looks the same as it did at the start of the 2017/2018 season, when Khatskevych began work as head coach: the football is the same, and the players are essentially the same. That is precisely why it is hard to believe that Dynamo under this coaching staff will manage at least one of its two priority tasks: reaching the Champions League group stage and beating Shakhtar in the domestic championship.

In the first two seasons, Khatskevych achieved neither of these goals. The excuses varied, but they all boiled down to the team's level not matching the set objectives: "the guys are young", "the level is fairly average", and so on. The tsar is good, the boyars are bad.

Jokes about lecture notes in 2019 should probably be considered inappropriate, but one cannot really talk about progressive ideas from the coaching staff. Running—they run; playing—that is already worse.

What about the newcomers?

Yes, Dynamo no longer buys players for 10 million euros, as it did in the pre-war period, but it still buys: under Khatskevych, nearly two dozen players have joined the team, roughly 30 million was spent on the market in total, plus, of course, their own youth. But essentially the same faces play: Sydorchuk, Garmash and Buyalskyi were responsible for the midfield against Bruges, while Artem Besedin, who does not score, still struggles in attack.

No one is immune to injuries, of course, and in this respect some of Dynamo's newcomers are clearly unlucky, such as Mikkel Duelund and Fran Sol, but where are the others?

Of the foreign legionnaires acquired under Khatskevych, only Benjamin Verbič and Tomáš Kendjera are playing regularly at present, and the Slovenian looked in recent matches as if he could well sit on the bench.

Khatskevych has written off the Brazilians acquired on the recommendation of Yevgeny Krasnikov, the invited creator of the very Metalist, (Che Che and Vitor Bueno have already returned home, and the same, it seems, awaits Sidiclei), and now he has focused on cooperation with agent Vadim Shablii. An agent who became influential thanks to his ties with Shakhtar and who still oversees all of the miners' youth. An agent who has practically monopolised the market (besides Dynamo he also supplies Zorya, Mariupol and Karpaty).

What next?

On Saturday, August 10, Dynamo will play Shakhtar in the Premier League, and on Tuesday they face the return match against Bruges. Of course, a failure at the Classic will not be understood by fans, and work will certainly need to be done, but the European cup tie will be the priority.

If there is a successful comeback in the return leg, Dynamo will face either Switzerland's Basel or Austria's LASK in the qualifying play-off. The opponents are decent, but there is definitely a chance to reach the group stage—this is not last year's Ajax. But to do that, they must first get past Bruges. If they fail to do so, then what is the point of even talking? Then your level is truly the Europa League. And then it is time to admit that this is what you really are content with.