"Talalaev's absence on the sidelines affected the results"

RPL clubs are actively preparing for the new season. So, Baltika Kaliningrad, the main sensation of the last Russian championship draw, has already started the second summer training camp. A year ago, she rose from the first league to the Premier League, where she immediately took sixth place - the best result in the club's history. In an interview with Izvestia, the Baltika midfielder spoke about the preparations for the new season, shared his opinion on the reasons for the unsuccessful end of the last championship and told how the team was affected by the absence of Kaliningrad head coach Andrei Talalaev during two disqualifications from the RFU KDK.

— How is the pre-season going at Baltika?

— In principle, it's fine. Very heavy fees. The first training camp in the Kaliningrad region was held in a two-day training regime. Now there will be more games in Turkey at the second training camp. We are gradually coming to our optimal state closer to the season.

— Is Andrey Talalaev's workload as heavy as at the training camps in winter and last summer?

— Yes, the loads are still heavy. We work in the same rhythm as before. Another thing is that we are already familiar with all this and are much better prepared for it. Unless it's harder for Baltika's newcomers right now. But I think they're adapting to it too.

— Should it help that Baltika, apart from the winter transfer to Spartak Vladislav Saus and the summer transfer to Zenit Kevin Andrade, did not lose any of the key players of last season?

— It's good that most of that train has been preserved. A lot of guys in the current team already know the requirements of the coaching staff. So we will try to achieve an even better result than last season.

— Is the team somehow affected by the rumors constantly surfacing in the media about the interest in players from richer clubs?

"I wouldn't say that. We don't really discuss this within the team. Sometimes we just pay attention if someone writes about it. But there is no such thing that such rumors affect us.

— Has anyone contacted you with a specific proposal?

- no. I'm a Baltika player. And my task is to show results with it. I do everything that depends on me for this. The rest is no longer my questions.

— During the vacation, did you analyze why Baltika had a blurred ending to a generally successful season — the last eight games without a win, the last four matches lost, albeit with a minimum score?

— Yes, the ending was blurred. Probably, we can only make claims to ourselves. We lost a lot of games in the endings — against Krasnodar (1:1), Pari Nizhny Novgorod (2:2), even before this winless series with Rostov (1:1). We had some bad luck, but we lost a lot of points in the last minutes because of these unnecessary goals. As such, you won't find one reason. Several guys had injuries, Andrei Viktorovich was absent from the training field for about three weeks, and at the end of the season he was not in training for a week due to health problems. But still, the main thing is those point losses in the endings.

"Talalaev has built a system where he can miss a match."

Baltika football player Ivan Belikov — about the successful results in the championship, the recession at the end of the season and the absence of a head coach

— Did Talalaev's absence from the field due to disqualifications affect the points? Do some Baltika players believe that the system they built allowed them to achieve results without him during the matches?

"It probably did. Not even for sure, but for sure. In any case, the absence of the head coach had an effect. Anyway, Andrey Viktorovich can give emotions. Somewhere to push the team, somewhere, on the contrary, to calm us down. Somewhere it will force you to pick up the pace, somewhere to slow down. We lacked such control from the sidelines at the end of matches, when we lost points due to goals in the last minutes. And in other games, too, when we lost by one goal, although we seemed to play as well as our opponents. So I think Andrey Viktorovich's absence has had an effect.

— To what extent is Baltika ready to repeat or improve the result next season?

— Time will tell. We will do our best to achieve the best possible result.

— Do you feel that you are able to constantly compete on equal terms with long-term top clubs?

— Last season showed that we are not inferior to anyone. We beat Spartak twice, defeated CSKA at home (1-0). And they played with everyone else on equal terms. We can keep this bar even further.