"I would like to thank Shpilevsky for his trust not with words, but with deeds"

The current season in Russian football has started unsuccessfully for Pari Nizhny Novgorod. The team, led by Alexei Shpilevsky in the summer, lost five times and won one match in the first six rounds of the Russian championship. The last meeting in the tournament turned out to be especially disastrous, away from Dynamo Moscow. Nizhny Novgorod suffered a crushing defeat 0:3 and are in the penultimate 15th place in the direct relegation zone.

In an interview with Izvestia, Paris NN defender Maxim Shnaptsev explained the reasons for the unsuccessful results, told what Shpilevsky requires from the team and how much time it takes to build the game he needs.

— What is happening with the team this season?

— It's hard to say. There's some kind of instability in our game. We still can't do what the coach requires.

— What's stopping you?

— Now new players come to us every week. Maybe there is no teamwork yet. I don't know, I don't want to blame anyone for anything - neither the team nor myself. After each match, we try to discuss with the coach why we are doing so unconvincingly. We will try to rectify the situation in the upcoming matches.

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— This summer, under Alexey Shpilevsky, for the first time in two years at Paris NN, you began to constantly play in the starting lineup in the championship. Why did they start getting so much playing time with him?

— The coach's trust is very strong. We need to ask him why this happened. But I am very ashamed that I have not yet been able to repay Alexey Nikolaevich for this trust and help him realize his ideas. I want to thank him not with words, but with deeds. I hope that there will be victories. And we will fix the football that he wants to see.

— To what extent is Shpilevsky's system of play, with its high pressure, capable for Paris NN with its current composition?

— It's not for me to judge how capable our squad is. But personally, I like the game system that Shpilevsky sets up. Sometimes we play good football, but we need to stabilize it.

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— What has changed especially in the preparation under the current head coach?

— Physically, you need to be better prepared. But for now, you can see that we go out for one match and show what he wants from us, and then we can't show it in the next game. I would even say that we go into the match and build on the situation that exists on the field. In the same meeting with Dynamo, we wanted to do one thing, but it turned out to be completely different. Even in terms of fighting, we lost most of the single combats and rebounds in this game from the very beginning. And in these conditions, no matter what scheme you set, no matter how much you run, if we lose all the rebounds, we won't achieve anything.

— Is Paris NN capable of solving serious problems with such football, and not more defensive, as with Sergei Yuran?

— It's hard to say anything right now. I clearly understand what Shpilevsky wants. We just can't implement his ideas yet. It takes time to build it all up. So far, we are moving from match to match and tuning in to each game as much as possible. I hope it will start to bring victories soon. So far, everything is going in waves. I think we started the season well in the sense that we didn't really lose to anyone, even when we lost on the score. And in the match with the same Dynamo, they somehow already sagged. But I am sure that the coach will stand his ground and we will not play in any "bus".

— How long will it take for such football to produce results?

— It's hard to make a wish right now. I'll say one thing and you'll get another. But in general, our team is fully adapting to the coach's requirements and will do what he wants after the winter training camp. Because the summer preseason wasn't enough, it's short. And after a month and a half of training in winter, it will finally be seen how he sees our attacking and defensive actions.

— So you need to keep up with the competition until winter?

— We will still play every match to win. As before, we went out to win. There was no such thing as playing for a draw, defending, or losing outright. The fact that the results were negative is another matter. But we will definitely do everything to achieve victory in every match.