"I decided for myself that I want to leave Dynamo under Gusev."

The players of Dynamo Moscow went on a winter break in the season in tenth place in the championship and reached the semi-finals of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup, where they will play twice with Spartak Moscow in March. During the disastrous first part of the season, the head coach of the team, Valery Karpin, resigned, and for the last four matches his duties were performed by Rolan Gusev, who had previously helped him. Midfielder Denis Makarov became the third most productive player in the championship following the results of the past 18 rounds with three goals for Dynamo.

And this is despite the fact that he played only eight matches in the summer and early autumn, after which he dropped out due to injury. The team's doctor, Alexander Rodionov, called the player's recovery time up to three weeks, but in the end he returned to the application after Karpin's resignation. Timur Gurtskaya, a well—known football mediator, claimed in his YouTube show that Luis Martinez, a physical training coach from Karpin's headquarters, did not give the green light for Makarov to return to training. But, having returned to the application already under Gusev, Denis never entered the field. In an interview with Izvestia, he stated that he wanted to leave Dynamo if Gusev stayed, commented on rumors of a conflict with Martinez, supported Rodionov and spoke about Karpin's departure.

"I have Dynamo football club, and I am grateful to them for everything. But I want to play football."

— Considering that you have never played in the last four matches under the leadership of Rolan Gusev, can I call you the main victim of Karpin's resignation?

— I think so. Some kind of disrespect, no respect from the coaching staff in my direction, although at the beginning of the season I scored and showed a good game. But everyone has their own opinion, so let's see who will be the Dynamo coach next.

— Have you ever felt such disrespect from Gusev when he worked as an assistant to Lichka and Karpin and served as head coach in the spring after Lichka's dismissal?

— I felt it.

— How did it manifest itself?

— I won't tell you the details. I just felt it.

— Do your words about disrespect from Gusev mean that you won't work with him anymore?

— For myself, I decided that with this coaching staff headed by Gusev, I want to leave Dynamo. I want to talk to the club so they can let me go.

— If he won't be on the coaching staff at all, starting with the winter training camp, are there any possible options?

- of course. I have Dynamo football club, and I am grateful to them for everything. But I want to play football. And I've been playing football honestly all my life.

"We played well, ran, pressed, but the result was not on our side"

— How did you react to Gusev's statements in an interview with blogger Sergey Egorov about the team's poor physical fitness? Do you support the harsh criticism of him from experts who have stated that it is unethical to speak so publicly about the work of his predecessor, whom he worked for at headquarters? Leonid Slutsky said that he would not hire Gusev as an assistant, and Vladislav Radimov wished him to finish his career at Dynamo.

— No, I don't support it. It was just, of course, wrong to say that about his predecessor, but then Roland Alexandrovich apologized. Therefore, I do not support what has been said about him.

— In November, information about your conflict with Luis Martinez, a physical training coach from Karpin's headquarters, made a splash.

— Let's not talk about it.

— Will we ever find out if it's true that as a result of his decision, you haven't played in the last month and a half under Karpin? That, contrary to the opinion of the team doctor, he considered you unprepared after the injury?

— This is our personal relationship with him. No, no one will ever know. Because it's between me and him.

— When your agent Alexey Babyr told Sport-Express in September that you were out for two weeks, Dynamo doctor Alexander Rodionov told RB Sport in a comment about two or three weeks. How did it eventually turn into two or three months?

— First of all, I want to thank our doctor for always being by my side and treating me very quickly, so I am very grateful to him.

— Were you surprised by Karpin's decision to resign?

— Well, yes. Sure. It was unpleasant that everything turned out that way.

— Is there an explanation for why he failed at Dynamo?

— To be honest, there is no explanation. I think there will be a lot of time to think about it now, to see what happened. That's how we were fully prepared for the season. We are well prepared. But for some reason, the result was not on our side. If you look at many matches, we played well, ran, pressed, but the result was not on our side.

— In your opinion, did Karpin's combination of work at the head of the Russian national team and Dynamo affect the club's results?

— I don't know. In principle, our training process has not changed. Yes, maybe the fact that Valery Georgievich was not with us during the two-week breaks at the national team games influenced us. We may have missed him during these periods, but we'll never know for sure.