"At the beginning of the championship, the physical condition was disgusting"

In the outgoing 2025, the Sochi football club returned to the RPL with a big creak. In the first league, despite the status of the favorite, the southern club finished only fifth, and got into the transition matches only because of the non-admission of Novorossiysk Chernomorets to them. In the play-off games, Sochi defeated Pari Nizhny Novgorod after two meetings (1:2, 3:1) and returned to the RPL. Moreover, after losing the first match, the club suspended head coach Robert Moreno, but returned the Spanish specialist before the start of training camp.

With him, the start of the new season in the Premier League was a failure — one point in the first seven rounds. In early September, Moreno was fired, replaced by Igor Osinkin. The results improved, but not radically enough to rise in the table. As a result, Sochi came in last place for the winter break. The team is separated from the transition zone by five points. In an interview with Izvestia, one of the club's old-timers, defender Kirill Zaika, who has been playing for Sochi since 2018, explained the reasons for the failure, told why the team regressed under Moreno, and what needs to be done to save themselves from relegation at the end of the spring season.

"We must jump above our heads"

— It's probably stupid to ask you to evaluate the current season for Sochi...

— But let me answer all the same: it's a sad season. From beginning to end. From the first day.

— By the end of the first part of the season, did you see signs that the team could escape relegation?

— Not yet. I don't see anything new. I hope the winter break will help us. And everyone in the team will rethink their attitude to football — then something will change.

— Is Sochi in last place because of the wrong attitude of the players towards football?

— Yes, of course. Each of us needs to understand whether a person wants to play football or not.

— Have there been any improvements in the team's performance and motivation since the head coach's change in September?

— Of course, there was a glimmer at first. The game has improved in some ways, and mutual understanding has improved in others. But that's not enough. You also need to get a lot out of yourself, get out of your comfort zone. Especially in such situations as we have now. You have to jump above your head.

— In the spring, after winning the transition matches, you said that in 2024, after your departure from the Russian Premier League, it was important for you to stay in Sochi and return it to the elite. Is there a fear that you will have to do it again soon?

— If I have to, I'll do it (smiles).

— So in case of relegation, are you ready to play for Sochi in the first league again?

— Yes, my contract will still be valid — it ends in a year and a half. I will do everything that is required of me for this club.

"Moreno didn't hear us"

— Do you have an explanation for why there was a failure at the beginning of the season under Robert Moreno? When he took over Sochi, which was in last place in the Russian Premier League, two years ago, many were shocked that the club signed the former coach of Barcelona and the Spanish national team. Despite the relegation, the team's performance under the Spaniard in the spring of 2024 made a good impression. But even last season in the first league, all this disappeared somewhere. And there are still problems with returning to the RPL.

— Yes, what we had in the RPL in the spring of the season before last disappeared when we started in the first league. Maybe the person got a little lost, didn't understand where he got to. He probably didn't understand our mentality. We tried to help him, we prompted him, but the man did not hear.

His football, which was suitable for the Premier League, did not go to the FNL. Because in the first league, the teams play more indoor football. With those opponents who tried to put pressure on us, we were just able to play the football that Moreno demanded. But sometimes it was not possible to switch to another, more simplified game. We all tried to roll and roll the ball, but in the FNL sometimes you have to act a little differently, play simpler football.

Sometimes, if we switched to it for 10 minutes during the match, we managed to achieve more during that time than in the other 80. There were also questions in the first league about the squad, which changed quite often. Some players, with all due respect, shouldn't have played.

"Name them?"

— Well, why? It's just that in my understanding, more experienced guys who know what to do in such situations should have come out.

— When we returned to the RPL after the transition matches, was it no longer possible to return what was working in the spring of 2024?

— It's just that a well-known situation has already occurred at the junctions with Nizhny Novgorod.

— Are you talking about Moreno's suspension from working with the team after losing the first match against Paris NN?

— Yes, we won the second leg without him, we returned to the RPL. And then Robert returned to the team. But by the time he returned, the attitude towards him in the team was slightly different. Human qualities have already manifested themselves. Nothing good could happen anymore.

— What are the human qualities?

— Let it stay inside. It would be wrong to take it outside.

— In the summer, back under Moreno, Sochi received a large group of newcomers who had previously worked with Igor Osinkin at Chertanovo and Krylia Sovetov. In early autumn, Igor Vitalievich himself was appointed to the team. Do the old-timers of the club have an understanding with his players?

— Everything is fine in the team, communication is going on. It's just that you have to be a little angrier and more active on the field. Not only to play on clean balls, but first of all to take them away and play pressure.

"In the second half, they immediately got hit in the ears"

— For the first part of this season, can you compare Sochi's competitors in the fight for survival with those who beat you the season before last? Is it harder to fight now than it was then?

— Then all spring all the teams from the bottom of the table dominated and scored a lot of points. That's why, even with a good game, we couldn't escape. A couple of wins would have given us a chance to stay in the RPL, but we were all tied. And we've already made it to the last one, when the chances were slim.

In the penultimate round, we had a game against Krasnodar, who fought for the championship and snatched victory from us in the last minutes. Although if we had won, we could have clung to the joint zone in the last round. I don't know how the situation will turn out in the spring. We should not look at other teams and start from ourselves more. We have a lot of problems.

— What should I add to over the winter besides the anger you mentioned on the field?

— Physically, of course. Because our summer training failed. At the beginning of the championship, our condition was disgusting. Because of this, the guys got injured. And we couldn't keep up the intensity throughout the match. In most cases, they played well in the first half, and in the second they immediately got hit in the ears.