Sandro Schwarz: «Zakharyan played solidly – he constantly works for the team»

— I am very happy because we started the season with a win. Unfortunately, there were no supporters at the stadium, we missed them a lot. Today the team had a very touching meeting with fans in the hotel. The guys arrived to this match, but could not attend it. I want to thank them.

As for the game, I would like to note how reliable we looked in defense. We had quite a few chances running out on counterattacks, and we scored the first goal in one of them. The second goal came from the set play. In the second half, we also created a lot of goal chances, but, unfortunately, we could not score.

— You set the attacking football, but the team had to play a lot in defense in the first half. Did it correspond to your game plan?

— We knew that there would be a lot of tackles today, and we paid attention to the fact that it was very important to win rebounds. I think that the team showed its fighting spirit and a very good quality of play, which led us to the win.

— Did Rostov surprise you in this match?

— To be honest, no. We knew well what formation our opponent preferred. Rostov did not surprise us by his style of football, because we had analyzed this team very well. I would like to mention our analytical group, which studied the game of Rostov very well.

— What can you say about Kutitsky's debut in the Premier League?

— He came out as a defensive midfielder, but sometimes he moved to the position of the central midfielder. We decided to field him, because he showed himself very well at training camps just in the position of a defensive midfielder.

— Did Balbuena and Laxalt fulfill all your instructions?

— I am completely satisfied with the way they showed themselves. I would like to mention the character of these guys and their human qualities. Today, the team performed as a whole mechanism.

— Why didn't you field Galkin and Gladyshev in the end, so that the guys could feel the taste of big football?

— Their time has not come yet, we need to be patient, and after all, they are still young players. Now they need to continue working hard in training, and it is likely that they will deserve their playing time.

— Zakharyan was named the man of the match. Do you think it is well deserved?

— He performed very well today, he played solidly. Arsen showed himself perfectly both in attack and in defensive actions. He constantly works for the team, goes to tackles and is always ready to benefit the team. I would like to note that there were other candidates for this prize, because we showed good football today.