Vitaliy Denisov: ‘I’m always ready to go forward’

In an interview with ‘Nash Loko’ magazine, Vitaliy Denisov said optimism helps him play football.

- Many people mistakenly call you a midfielder because of your rich attacking potential and skills: you support attack, dribble the ball, strike at the goal. How do coaches let you understand that you can go forward?

- It’s a general tendency, really: any player must be able to support attack. Thank you for praising my skills. But my primary task is to secure the back. I attack when there’s an opportunity. If you see you can do it - go ahead and be bold.

- Imagine a coach telling you you are going to play in the hole…

- I won’t object. If it’s better for the team, I’ll do it. I’m ready for this, and I know what to do at the front. I’ve been playing there throughout my childhood, as a winger. But in Russia I became a defender.

- Who is the leader among Lokomotiv’s back-four? Corluka?

- Corluka and Durica. Much depends on these two central defenders, they give out key orders. But speaking about the leaders, I also have to mention Guilherme.

- The team have been a subject to criticism lately for poor scoring rate and so on.

- It’s true that our play is far from perfect, experts and supporters criticize us. I don’t object, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. As for the criticism, I always try to take it adequately. I respect the criticism coming from a supporter or even an ordinary person. Criticism that has good arguments is good. It’s interesting and useful to hear it. But I will never despair! My brother taught me that even when things turn out bad, you have to try to see the good and forget the bad. In football, you always have to be optimistic.

- But even optimists sometimes suffer because of their openness…

- That’s true. My optimism played the devil with me many times. But not in sports. I trusted people too much. I hope I’m smarter now, and more experienced. I’m not 20 anymore.

- Imagine: the team goes to the restaurant. What would you talk about?

- Would we take wives? - Vitaliy laughs.

- Not this time.

- We’d talk about football. Even when we’re in the mood to joke, nevertheless we talk about football. About our work.

- Do you quarrel? Football debates is like politics: sometimes it’s hard to show understanding.

- We don’t quarrel, but we do debate. Should you only start talking about football, you’ll end up in a day-long discussion.

- What is more important in a professional conversation, your vis-a-vis mentality, or his football education?

- Mentality, of course. If people are ready to understand each other, they’ll be able to find the golden mean. I think football education is not that instrumental to a discussion as the person’s character.

Read the full interview in the ‘Nash Loko’ issue which will go on sale on the day of the game between Lokomotiv and Torpedo.

The teams are playing on April 8th. The game kicks off at 20:00 Moscow time. Our website will do live text commentary which will also be available on Twitter.