Talalaev called the main difference between the Russian Premier League and foreign championships

Andrei Talalaev turned 50 on October 5. During his long and interesting life in football, he managed to play both in Russia and abroad. Having finished playing at the age of 28 due to injuries, Talalaev managed to become one of the most interesting and recognizable specialists with his own vision of football. No wonder Akhmat, the last team with which he worked until September of this year, was called “Talalaev’s team.” What is modern football and what a successful head coach of the team should know and be able to do, Talalaev told in his interview with MK.

– Andrei Viktorovich, you played as a striker in Russian and foreign teams. Worked as a coach in national teams and many clubs. Busy career. Are you tired of football yet?

– As a result of long work, a cumulative effect accumulates, and there is a slight fatigue. In terms of fighting for every match, winning every game. As for football in general, it is impossible to get tired of it. Because both football itself and the people who work in it combine a favorite thing, a hobby, a passion, and the opportunity for personal growth. Therefore, we are happy people.

– You managed to play and work as a coach in Russia and abroad. What is the difference between our Premier League and the European championships?

– After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many had the feeling that we are still among the leaders of world football. But gradually the stratification began. The choice of players has become smaller. From a country of 250 million people, we have become a country with a population of just over 140 million. Also, many players from Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, who added their original palette, now play in their own championships and foreign championships of a higher level. And the demands of the demanding Russian fan remained the same. As is ambition. Plus, subsidence began, since football is inextricably linked with social life, and questions related to its level were primary for some time. Therefore, there were no investments in the development of football, in the development of football technologies, the football industry, which were made by “rich” countries for twenty years after the collapse of the Union. Therefore, all experts say that the main difference is in the level of intensity. Especially when we compare the best matches of the Champions League, the Europa League and the best games of our league. There is too much difference in the level and quality of actions at maximum speeds. Our players in a single match can beat any team. But if we take the entire championship, then the speed, power, and density of the game are lower. Because of this, there is a difference in the entertainment of matches.

– You touched on a very interesting topic. Progress cannot be stopped. And you, as a specialist, probably know how much modern information and digital technologies have entered the work of the head coach, the entire coaching staff of the team. Because sport, and football in particular, lends itself to mathematical analysis and measurement – how much a player ran, how many accurate passes he gave, how he interacted with teammates. What has changed in your work over the past few years in this regard?

I can only partly agree with you. Because football is above all creativity and creativity. No robot will be able to make up for these human abilities anytime soon. That’s why we love our game so much. Yes, a lot can be calculated and calculated. But any coach will tell you that the game at the gates of others is, first of all, non-standard. Its hard to calculate. If we talk about scoring goals, about organizing the game, about organizing the defense, about moving from defense to attack – now a lot is considered. In my work as a coach, I use many different assistants. We have a science coach, a fitness coach. During a match, an analyst coach sits somewhere upstairs in the stands and, using a computer program, corrects many indicators in real time. Football players play with heart rate monitors and GPS devices on their backs. Therefore, the head coach during the match can correct the team’s game not only visually if he doesn’t like something, not only depending on whether the player fulfills his instructions, but also depending on the volume of his movements on the field, the quality of these movements.

Suppose a player is said to have run 12 kilometers in a match. But this is not the most important indicator for an attacking or flank player. You need “explosions”, you need not just to run away from your opponent, you need to beat him, to have time to make a technical action. And still have time to return back at maximum speed. Therefore, today football is a very science-intensive industry. Its main consumer will always be the viewer. And not a single robot can convey the pleasure with which football fans the next morning after the match will discuss the vicissitudes of the game, including the mistakes of football players and referees. This is exactly what allows people to experience emotions. And throw them out during the match. Yes, we sometimes get offended by the remarks of the fans when something does not work out on the field. But over the years, you begin to understand that it is for the sake of this that we are engaged in this profession, football. We give people emotions. And this is the biggest reward. No wonder football is the number one sport. He is the most democratic. Everyone plays it. In addition, this is one of the few sports that develops two hemispheres of the brain at once – both creative and logical. Therefore, I am convinced that football will remain the most popular sport. Causing such vivid emotions.

Remember at least the 2018 World Cup in Russia. How enchanting it was, how our team performed. For what you need to praise the coaching staff of the team, headed by Stanislav Cherchesov. And the leadership of our football. Even the Olympic Games in terms of the scale of public interest cannot be compared with it.

– In August, it was 30 years since the first training camp in the history of the Russian national team took place in 1992. You participated in it. Did you remember this date, did you mark it?

– For me, this is a very important date. Both plus sign and minus sign. When I was called up to the national team then, at first I thought it was a joke. Because at that time we played mediocre at Torpedo. But Boris Petrovich Ignatiev called me back and said that he was waiting for me at the training camp. Where the elite of Russian football was assembled. At that time, with Vladimir Beschastnykh, we were the youngest in this team. And the bitterness is that at that training camp I got injured. And I could not take part in a friendly match with the Mexican national team, I watched it from the podium.

After that, I only had one more chance when the national team played in Italy. But I had an injury again, it is very painful and insulting. And I couldn’t help the team. So the romance with the first team did not work out for me. To be honest, today, from the standpoint of the past years and my coaching experience, I understand that at that time there were players stronger than me. Which have achieved great success and brought more benefits to the country. Because entering the field in a T-shirt with the coat of arms of your country to the national anthem is the apogee of the career of a football player and coach.

– Football in general is one of the most traumatic and contact sports. Based on your experience, what advice can you give footballers on how to deal with the physical and emotional effects of injuries?

– I’m probably one of the biggest experts in this field. I’ve had five surgeries on one knee and three on the other. For five years now, I have had an artificial knee joint that does not allow me to play football. You have to ride a bike and swim.

Injuries in our sport are the most unpleasant thing that can be. You can survive everything – negative stages of your career, when something doesn’t work out, when you don’t score, when you lose one step away from the final. And injuries make you seriously think about the possibility of continuing your career. The leaders of the clubs, the League, the RFU are doing everything to reduce the percentage of injury. Even judges in recent years have greatly reduced the level of martial arts due to severe injuries and long recovery times. I had to end my career as a football player at the age of 28, because my body simply did not allow me to play. Players miss a lot of time. When you are without football for half a year, a year, the process of returning to the field is difficult. It also focuses on the need to improve the quality of football fields. I am glad that in our country, especially considering the stadiums built for the 2018 World Cup, everything is fine now. Many artificial fields of the latest generation have appeared.

The level of education of trainers is increasing. Now the RFU Academy is engaged in comprehensive education. They did the right thing by combining the education of coaches and the education of referees. Because these educational processes should be completely interconnected. Referees, including those who ensure the safety of players, must understand the intricacies of the game. And coaches need to understand the complexities of the work of referees.

Sports medicine also does not stand still. Every year something new comes up. The same cryochambers that appeared ten years ago. Then they cost more than a million euros. Today they are not so expensive. More technological. This allows you to use them not only after matches, but also during the training process. There was an opportunity for the whole team to process microtraumas after training. And this, in turn, avoids more serious injuries.

– We constantly read and hear that our football players go to complex surgeries and rehabilitation in foreign clinics. Do we not have our own good medical centers in Russia? How are things with sports medicine in our country? What are its pros and cons?

– Of course, it is better to ask our sports doctors about it. I think this is a stereotype. The level of equipment is gradually leveling off. All the innovations that appear there appear with us. It’s just that everyone sees where the leading foreign football players do their operations. And athletes have certain associations. And every athlete takes care of his health. And he wants the best. Therefore, they tend to those clinics that have a certain reputation. I can say that we have enough specialists who carry out very high-quality operations. Let’s say the operation of the meniscus is generally elementary. How to cure a runny nose. So the problem is stereotypes and the lack of good, positive PR for our clinics.

In the clubs where I worked, in Khimki, Akhmat, Krylya, we sent only the most difficult cases of injuries abroad. The level of our medicine allows you to calmly cope with injuries of moderate severity.

I can also say that the players are more willing to go to those teams where the players have a statistically lower number of injuries.

– That is, the players keep track of this?

– Of course. And the task of the coaching staff is to be so diverse that you have the prevention of injuries, the speed of recovery after them corresponds to the individual level of growth in the skill of the players. Because the players think not only about the level of their material well-being, but also about what success they can achieve in this or that team with this or that coach. And they also think about the duration of their career.

In my coaching staff for the past twenty years, one of the fitness coaches is Italian. And he writes rehabilitation programs either in person or remotely. Because they didn’t have the gap that we had in the 90s. My head coach is Yuri Nagaitsev with dual citizenship of Latvia and Russia. In terms of mentality, he is more likely a German – everything is very clearly painted with us. And injury prevention is one of the main articles. Because when entering the football field, in a match or in training, the players are very concentrated and do everything very well. But at the warm-up or training in the gym, at recovery activities, you need to clearly monitor everything.

You also need to follow all the news in rehabilitation. For example, every six months we change the rules on pharmacology. Sports nutrition is constantly changing. Let’s say before there was saturation with caffeine and sugar before the game, the maximum number of calories. Now in the world’s leading teams, sugar is completely removed. Because it can lead to injury.

Football is an interesting and complex process. And if you want to develop in it, then you need to follow all the news every day. And you can’t do it alone. There should be like-minded people around you. And most importantly, the players should also be imbued with your development ideas. If this works out, then you can achieve good results and grow good players.