Ukrainian coach Yuriy Benyo has admitted Shakhtar’s Donetsk’s management deserve praise for convincing Chelsea to pay €70m for Mykhaylo Mudryk.
Benyo has been speaking to Tribuna about his career, life in Saudi Arabia and the Chelsea forward, who he worked with at Donetsk.
Mudryk is undoubtedly one of the most high-profile names in Ukrainian football at this moment in time, having long been established as one of the stars of the national team.
He was once the star at Shakhtar Donetsk too, rising through their ranks to the first team in 2021 and never looking back, managing 12 goals and 17 assists in 44 appearances for them.
His talent was quickly picked up on in Europe when he was impressing in the Champions League, impressing in high level performances against the likes of Real Madrid as well as bagging a goal and two assists in a 4-1 win over RB Leipzig in 2022.
Before long the Premier League came calling and in January 2023 Arsenal looked likely to sign him before Chelsea appeared from nowhere, paid €70m and beat their rivals to his signature.
That’s a deal they’ve come to regret as Mudryk has struggled in England, managing just seven goals and five assists in 62 games for Chelsea to date.
His price tag has weighed heavy on him and the club and Benyo admits he was impressed Shakhtar got such a figure.
“For me, such a figure was impressive, so I respect the management of the club, the president, that they managed to sell the player for such considerable money,” he said.
“It is a little respect for us that we prepared it for these six months, made him such a package. Misha is fast and very dangerous, so it is necessary to create conditions where he can use the space and meet the ball with his face to someone else’s goal at speed.
“This is his feature, but he works less in defense. So, it is necessary to make sure that other football players compensate for this aspect in his game. We used Styopa, Kolya Matvienko and Zhora Sudakov in defense for a reason.”
