Luka Pavlovic: Today's result is a common merit of all Academy's coaches
Sheriff Football Academy head coach Luka Pavlovic meets FC Sheriff press office journalist to share his thoughts on the Champion title of the Academy's trainees born in 2000, as well as on the UEFA Youth League and methods for young players' development.
Luka, congratulations to you, the team and everyone involved in the victory of our guys in the Under-19 Moldova Championship! Your opinion on this achievement?
Thank you so much! It's good you underlined that today's result is a common merit of all coaches. The guys were trained by Andrei Korneenkov, but now he works with the first team, and I'm so happy for him. We held common training for reserves and players born in 2000, that's why we try to involve them in the games of the Reserve Championship.
In the former game of the season, our team played a 1-1 draw against Zimbru. This draw led us to the title. What will you characterize this game like?
I like games against Zimbru, and our last encounter is no exception. The more opponents of the kind we have, the higher is the level of the Moldovan football. Unfortunately, we don't have many teams like this. We have to face weak opposition where we score more than 10 balls a game. There is no football or development in such games. We haven't lost to "the Bisons" (Zimbru) that's why the top position in the Championship is fare and natural.
In the first half we conceded once, what did you emphasize in the break?
We told the team there still was enough time in the second half to play it back. We only needed patience without haste. We emphasized pressing on the opponent's territory. It was a big risk to receive a counterattack, but we needed to score and to take the risk. Otherwise, the opponent would have won.
Our team is going to perform at the Youth League. What do you expect from participation in this tournament?
We need to improve our tactics. It's not easy to play with European teams if you don't learn tactics.
Have you set goals for the tournament?
We can show ourselves well at the European arena. And the draw of the tournament will decide a lot. Two years ago, we matched up with Viitorul, Romania. It's a rather sound team raised in the Gheorghe Hagi Academy. Anyway, no matter what the result of the draw will be like, our team can be a worthy match to any opposition.
Many teams from Academy won titles this season. What are the secrets to development methodology of our trainees?
The methodology is built on the basis of football schools of Croatia, Spain, the Netherlands. I visited those schools many times, and we try to apply all the best things that help to develop young players. You asked several times what is more important - the result or the development? The result in itself is a factor of development. Our educational programme of players is aimed at progressive development and finding new ideas. A serious work is done in selection. And that's the work of coaches who know how to arise interest, how to attract children to football lessons. Then, young players learn from experts who develop their technical, physical and playing base. Then, from the age of 16, the youngsters learn tactics and psychology from more experienced tutors. The education process goes in stages. It's important that our trainees could receive necessary conditions at each stage. If a player didn't get enough in a technical sense until his 16th birthday, then he has to improve at 17 and 18. But at this age, you need to develop tactics and psychology. That's why our Academy seriously treats all the stages of children's development. It's a difficult process, and the results are not coming at once. We'll need time for our graduates to become good professionals.
FC Sheriff Press Office
Luka, congratulations to you, the team and everyone involved in the victory of our guys in the Under-19 Moldova Championship! Your opinion on this achievement?
Thank you so much! It's good you underlined that today's result is a common merit of all coaches. The guys were trained by Andrei Korneenkov, but now he works with the first team, and I'm so happy for him. We held common training for reserves and players born in 2000, that's why we try to involve them in the games of the Reserve Championship.
In the former game of the season, our team played a 1-1 draw against Zimbru. This draw led us to the title. What will you characterize this game like?
I like games against Zimbru, and our last encounter is no exception. The more opponents of the kind we have, the higher is the level of the Moldovan football. Unfortunately, we don't have many teams like this. We have to face weak opposition where we score more than 10 balls a game. There is no football or development in such games. We haven't lost to "the Bisons" (Zimbru) that's why the top position in the Championship is fare and natural.
In the first half we conceded once, what did you emphasize in the break?
We told the team there still was enough time in the second half to play it back. We only needed patience without haste. We emphasized pressing on the opponent's territory. It was a big risk to receive a counterattack, but we needed to score and to take the risk. Otherwise, the opponent would have won.
Our team is going to perform at the Youth League. What do you expect from participation in this tournament?
We need to improve our tactics. It's not easy to play with European teams if you don't learn tactics.
Have you set goals for the tournament?
We can show ourselves well at the European arena. And the draw of the tournament will decide a lot. Two years ago, we matched up with Viitorul, Romania. It's a rather sound team raised in the Gheorghe Hagi Academy. Anyway, no matter what the result of the draw will be like, our team can be a worthy match to any opposition.
Many teams from Academy won titles this season. What are the secrets to development methodology of our trainees?
The methodology is built on the basis of football schools of Croatia, Spain, the Netherlands. I visited those schools many times, and we try to apply all the best things that help to develop young players. You asked several times what is more important - the result or the development? The result in itself is a factor of development. Our educational programme of players is aimed at progressive development and finding new ideas. A serious work is done in selection. And that's the work of coaches who know how to arise interest, how to attract children to football lessons. Then, young players learn from experts who develop their technical, physical and playing base. Then, from the age of 16, the youngsters learn tactics and psychology from more experienced tutors. The education process goes in stages. It's important that our trainees could receive necessary conditions at each stage. If a player didn't get enough in a technical sense until his 16th birthday, then he has to improve at 17 and 18. But at this age, you need to develop tactics and psychology. That's why our Academy seriously treats all the stages of children's development. It's a difficult process, and the results are not coming at once. We'll need time for our graduates to become good professionals.
FC Sheriff Press Office