In the end, the East Bohemian Derby has no winner. How did you see his progress from the bench?
We entered the match nervous. For twenty minutes, Hradec was stronger on the ball, then we took the initiative, which resulted in a goal. In the second half, we searched a bit, got out of the game and conceded a goal that we probably could have kept. Then we started breathing again, created some chances. But Míša Hlavatý’s unconverted opportunity decided at 1:0, if we had taken a two-goal lead, we would have won the match. In the end, it’s probably a fair draw, every point counts.
Although Hlavatý looks good in the game, he is still waiting for his first hit or assist of the year. How do you work with him to break it?
We know it will rise. Clearly. Like the others, it was not just the match in Pilsen that went well for him. He performed excellently before, unfortunately he has no points from it. He worked hard this time too. Thanks to Kryštof Daňka, it is no longer only Míš’s responsibility, he can sometimes relieve himself.
Photo: Josef Vostárek, CTK
The East Bohemian derby was full of fights.
How do you rate Daňko? He was active, won a penalty, then also created the chance you mentioned excellently for Michal Hlavaté.
Very positively. He did a brilliant thing, he guided the ball and the players of Hradec thought they were going to shoot. He instead broke it on Misha, who was all alone. It was great. If we can score from that, it’s his goal. It brings us exactly what we expected. He is amazing in the last thirty meters, he shows it every game. I believe it will get better and better.
Is this the classic Pardubice scenario, similar to last year with Robin Hranáč and Tomáš Vlček? You borrow a player from a bigger club, he will help you in the short term and you, on the other hand, help him in developing his career…
I totally agree. This is what it should look like when a guest player arrives. It works very well, such a mutual cooperation.
Isn’t the thought that Daněk will move to Letná again in the winter after the end of his loan spell?
That’s how it goes here. Of course it is difficult for us, we play the players and then they leave. The entire management is working on it, for example we wanted to buy an experienced stopper. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it for some reason. But we did our best for it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Photo: Josef Vostárek, CTK
Pardubice football players rejoice at the 1:0 lead.
You also included Vojtěch Sychra in the lineup from the first minute, who hasn’t played that much this season. Did the fact that they were children of Pardubice also play a role? Thanks to this, he knows very well what the East Bohemian derby means.
Hundred percent. You need as many Pardubice as possible, they know what this derby is about. We knew about him a month ago that he was not completely well. He had knee problems before, he didn’t look very well. We sent him for two games for the third league reserve to get game practice. He played 120 minutes in the cup with Velvary on Wednesday, where he was one of the few players to bear any measure in the second half. Now he had fantastic comebacks after a loss, he worked incredibly. It’s a shame that he didn’t use it more offensively. But I’m sure when he calms down a bit, he’ll be an excellent player. He has amazing movement, he doesn’t skimp on a step. He can become an interesting footballer for other clubs as well.
After two league defeats and an unexpected exit from the cup with Velvary, did you put in a performance that, from your point of view, can withstand strict standards? Or were there any gaps?
There were definitely gaps. If the performance was ideal, the result is different. After the win in Teplice came a reprieve and two tough opponents, so the break paradoxically hurt us. We thought we would rest, but we knew that Slavia was waiting for us at home and then we were going to Pilsen. The explosion in Velvary didn’t help us at all either, we gave a very bad, maybe even shameful performance there. So we wanted to win this game, the boys did everything they could. There were mistakes, but in terms of deployment, I have nothing to blame them for.