Former Dynamo Moscow striker Evgeniy Lutsenko spoke about the working methods of Russian coach Alexander Grigoryan.

In 2011–2012, Lutsenko worked under the leadership of Grigoryan in the Khabarovsk club SKA-Energia, which is now called SKA-Khabarovsk.

– In terms of football, there are no questions for Grigoryan – he understands it, one hundred percent. But everyday situations with him were strange. During training we play five-by-two square. There was some kind of controversial situation, I told Valera Andronik: “Come in!” And he told me: “No, you.” Well, in short, the most banal dialogue for training. But Grigoryan didn’t like it. I look – he’s running towards me across the entire field, whistling: “I’ll break your jaw right here!” I’ll wave it twice and you’ll lie down!” All the guys went nuts – but I was overwhelmed, I said: “Let’s go to the locker room, we’ll talk there.” I stood and waited for Grigoryan, but he didn’t come. I packed my things and left. I still didn’t understand what it was all for – then we made peace, and I played steadily.

– Just a genius of motivation.

— By the way, about motivation. We are sitting in the locker room after another long flight. I have no strength at all, I just stare at one point. Grigoryan approaches: “Why, Zhek, are you tired? This morning I was sitting in the kitchen, just like you are now – I didn’t want to do anything at all. Do you know what I did? I took a rag, wet it and how I screwed up the whole floor! My soul felt so good!” With those eyes he told me that it really made me more fun.

— Grigoryan himself recalled that he allowed fighting in training.

– Well, not really fight. It’s just that when some kind of dispute arose between the players – in training or in theory – he took out large boxing gloves: “Here you go, fight.” Nobody really fought. This is all to let off steam and defuse the situation. But after our goalkeeper Lekha Solosin got into sparring, these events ended. He waved at someone in earnest a couple of times, so Vitalich decided not to take any more risks.

– Yeah!

“Grigoryan also made us dance and read poetry. We had breakfast one day in the dining room before morning training. Vitalich comes up to me with a sheet of paper, and there is Vysotsky’s “Horses”. I had to stand on a chair and read with expression and convey my hoarseness.

Grigoryan’s methods were unusual, but I quickly got into the swing of things – scoring, passing, earning a penalty. In Khabarovsk, I began to rise from the bottom, dragging the team,” Sport24 quotes Lutsenko.