Leonid Kuchuk: "The game was about using an opportunity"

In the press-conference that followed the game against Kuban, Lokomotiv head coach Leonid Kuchuk said his former team wasn't a special irritant for him, and commented on the substitutions he made.

- Before coming to Lokomotiv, you trained Kuban. Was this game special for you?
- This matter seems insignificant to me. All games in the Russian premier-league are special, so I tried to concentrate the players not on the importance of this particular match, but on the game and tactics. The only peculiarity I find here is that one strong team opposed another. Everything else in not important. As for my past relations with Kuban, my contract had expired and I was free to choose a different career option.

Talking about the game, Kuban are strong and I knew it. They knew our strength as well. So this game was about using an opportunity. We could double the lead, they could get back into the game, but anyway the winners are those who score.

- Both halves were somewhat similar. Lokomotiv started well but then gave away the initiative.
- Dima Tarasov got injured and in the half-time it became clear he won't make it to the end. This influenced our game in the second half. When I saw my players pulling back to their goal, I substituted Tarasov. Caicedo and Pavlyuchenko were there to try to use spaces in Kuban's back lines after they conceded a goal.

- Lokomotiv were more active in the beginning of the second half which brought them a goal. What did you say to the players in the dressing-room?
- I just explained everything carefully and said we have to carry on attacking. The half-time is needed to correct the mistakes you see. If you run around and shout and break stuff, you lose. The result depends on your work in the dressing-room.

- How much of their potential are the players showing now?
- They aren't aware of what they capable of yet. We have to learn to control the game and use the score.

- Watching you in the technical area, it looks like you talk to Samedov most often.
- Sasha, or Sam as I nicknamed him, is a very good player, he has just proved this again in the national team. I just give him recommendations about what techniques to employ during the game.

- Both you and Munteanu are active in the technical area. Who beat who today? And another question: Munteanu said Lokomotiv were merely lucky today.
- If I were following Munteanu I'd stop following the game. There were cases in my career when somebody provoked a coach, and the team saw it and became nervous, and lost a game they should have won. I was just telling the guys not to give up and play to the end in every episode.

Speaking about luck, well, how do you explain we weren't lucky in St Petersburg last time? How do you explain we were lucky today? That's what football is about - to make a team fight till the final whistle.