“Everyone received a decent workload”: Sergei Semak
By OnzeActu · · 3 min read
Sergei Semak judged the friendly meeting to be intense and educational: positive moments, defensive errors to correct, but above all a good workload for the squad and no injuries to deplore.
“There were good moments, but also losses of the ball and approximations which created danger in front of our goal,” explained Semak, returning to the only goal conceded by his team. The coach estimated that on the action of the opponent's goal, the defense was not sufficiently concentrated: “We conceded a goal: I think we were quite disorganized and poorly defended on this movement.”
Despite this, Semak highlighted his team's proactive approach throughout the match. “Overall, we tried to play actively, aggressively, like the opponent. I think we had a few more chances, we had to score,” he added, confirming that the offensive animation was present even if the realism was lacking.
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The coach also highlighted the useful nature of the confrontation in terms of physical and collective preparation: “Overall, it was a fairly intense match, with a lot of duels – exactly what we need at this stage.” He noted that fatigue was an expected consequence of the work done during preparation: “Fatigue accumulates, logically, some feel it more than others depending on the workload carried out during the training period.”
Finally, Semak praised the absence of injuries at the end of the meeting, a crucial point in the preparation phase: “Fortunately, there are no injuries, everyone received a fairly decent workload.”
This friendly match against a South American club allowed Zenit to measure its level of commitment and check certain squad rotations without taking any medical risks. The club relayed the words of its coach on its official website, specifying that the main objective of these meetings remains collective progress and conditioning before the resumption of official competitions.
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