Yeghishe Melikyan explained why Armenia failed to beat Kazakhstan

Armenia national team head coach Yeghishe Melikyan summed up the friendly match against Kazakhstan, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The national team coach was satisfied with the organization of the game, highlighted the team’s confident actions both in attack and defense, but admitted that Armenia once again lacked quality in the final stage.

Melikyan also explained his personnel decisions in detail, spoke about the roles of Karlen Hovhannisyan, Julio Bueno, David Davidyan and Ognjen Čančarević, and confirmed that other players will get their chance in the next match against Moldova.

Yeghishe Melikyan’s press conference after the match against Kazakhstan (1-1)

— Assess the team’s performance in the first and second halves. In which half did we look better?

— In both halves, we had a chance to win. Our game plan worked, the opponent could not stop us. We built up well from defense and attacked. It is a little sad that we lacked quality in simple situations to secure the victory. There were players who are currently not in their best shape, many came after vacation, unlike Kazakhstan. There were different reasons, which is why I understand the result. If everyone gets into shape and gets more playing time at their clubs, we will play even better.

As for the second half, when you make so many substitutions, the organization of the game can break down, and that is normal. At the same time, we had more chances to score in the second half. In terms of organization, of course, the first half was better. In the second half, Manvelyan played as a striker, Davidyan played on the left in attack, where he had never played before. Bandikyan came on for the first time. Sevikyan came on; he is not in his best shape, but still, well done to him — he tried.

— Armenia played with an advantage from the beginning of the match until the end and created many chances. The coach is more responsible for organizing attacks, and there were no problems with that, but how are we going to solve the problem of converting chances?

— You are right. If there were chances, it means tactically we brought the ball into the opponent’s penalty area correctly. I do not want to talk too much about the reasons for poor finishing; they are all my players. But the reality is that our forwards have not scored goals this year, and that is something to think about. Miranyan and Ranos did a lot of work, but there was a problem with the quality of play and match fitness. We have what we have. Finn Geragousian is injured. We do not have other forwards, so we will move forward with them.

— Karlen Hovhannisyan played in the starting lineup for the first time and linked up well with Spertsyan. What do you think about this midfield pair?

— I should not be the one to talk about Spertsyan; you all saw that he is a player of a completely different level. Thank God we have him. As for Karlen, I am very pleased with him; he was very useful for the team. Of course, there were mistakes, but we will work on that. He is our future.

— What can you say about the defenders’ performance in this match?

— Recently, I have been following the comments of journalists and fans. Many criticized my decision to call up Julio Bueno to the national team. But now I want to say that I was right. Today, because of injuries, Stepa Mkrtchyan and Sergey Muradyan could not play. If not for Bueno, we would have had huge problems today. But Bueno was in the team, came on and played excellently. I am very pleased with his performance. Piloyan and Harutyunyan also played brilliantly.

— It seemed that this was the national team’s best game in the last two years. What do you think about that?

— I cannot say that this was the best game. To say that, we needed to win. A good game — yes, but not the best.

— What role did Kamo Hovhannisyan have today? He often played both on the flank and in central midfield.

— We did not have just one specific game plan. We tried different roles to confuse the opponent. The opponent had difficulty transitioning into attack, and Kamo and Tiknizyan played a big role in that. The wing-backs played very well.

— The next match is against Moldova. What should we change in order to get the win?

— Yesterday we watched Moldova’s match against Bulgaria (2-2). They played well, so there are no weak teams now. We need to analyze their game properly. Moldova are definitely not stronger than us, but they are a solid team, and it will be a good match. I am glad that today we saw many players in action. There is still time before the match against Moldova, and we will see how we need to play.

— Yesterday you said that Kazakhstan are a team that can create problems. Did you see that today?

— Well, if the match ended in a draw and they managed to score a goal using individual qualities, that is also a problem. Before the game, I thought our game plan might not work because Kazakhstan were supposed to come into the match in better physical condition, while we had new players and little time. But our team knew what to do during the game and looked confident, and that is the most important thing.

— Was it initially planned that Čančarević would play the full match, or did you decide during the game not to replace the goalkeeper?

— We decided that he would play all 90 minutes, and he played well. That is how I saw it, and I was pleased with his performance. He also played well with his feet, so there was no need for a substitution. Against Moldova, I will definitely give others the opportunity to play.

In general, initially I did not want to invite Čančarević and wanted to play with goalkeepers from the Armenian championship. But we watched all the league matches and decided that Ognjen’s presence was necessary. It is still too early to give up on him. Neuer is signing a new contract at the age of 41. For a goalkeeper, he can still play for a long time. Henri Avagyan is a good goalkeeper, but he needs competition.

— Narek Grigoryan has been called up to the national team by different coaches, but he either does not play or only comes on at the end. Why is that?

— I will say straight away that I believe in him very strongly, and in the next game he will be in the starting lineup. We have two matches, so we divided the workload. Narek Grigoryan is very important for us. Besides, I knew that Sevikyan would not be able to play the full match, so today he came on as a substitute instead of Serobyan, while Grigoryan will start against Moldova.

— David Davidyan had not been invited to the national team for a very long time. Today he was in the team and played on the left in attack. He can also play on the right. Can we consider him a versatile player for us, and how do you assess his performance and his season overall?

— From the very beginning of the training camp, I told my assistants that I really liked Davidyan’s playing form. He arrived at the camp in excellent condition. I will reveal a secret: he is a very good person for me, I have known him for a very long time and have worked with him for a long time.

But in one of the previous matches, against Ireland, he remained on the bench and expressed dissatisfaction. I did not like that, and I stopped calling him up for that very reason, because I do not like such things: even if you are not playing, you still have to be with the team.

Now I am glad that Davidyan understood all of this and has now arrived at the national team with a full understanding of how he needs to behave. He is now an important player for us and, of course, a versatile one — as a winger, as a wing-back and even as a centre-forward.