Hibs can pile on woe for Dnipro

Now in his second spell in charge of the Ukrainian side, the 64-year-old has already offered to resign following a dismal start to the Vysha Liga in which Dnipro have won just two of their opening eight games.

A 1-1 draw away to Vorskla was their first point in four matches, leaving Dnipro languishing in 12th place in the table, already trailing leaders Shakhtar Donetsk by a mammoth 15 points.

Kucherevskiy acknowledged his side were in trouble on the opening day of the season, a 3-1 defeat away to SC Tavriya prompting him to say: "We were not up to standard in everything, both selflessness and tactics. If it is necessary for the team good I am ready even to resign. But this decision should be taken by the cub administration. One thing is clear, we need to take some measures."

Kucherevskiy, who suffers from heart problems, has certainly "taken some measures", having used an astonishing 23 players as he searches for the answers to his problems.

However, it appears that even his legendary status at the Meteor Stadium - he guided Dnipro to the Soviet League title in 1988 and the Soviet Cup the following year - won't be enough to save Kucherevskiy, who has also coached in Russia and Tunisia, if the current slump continues.

General manager Andriy Stetsenko, who accompanied assistant coach Vadym Tyshchenko to watch Hibs beat Dundee United at the weekend, said: "Maybe the players no longer understand what the coaches are asking of them." And he added ominously: "Something will need to change."

Kucherevskiy's problems have been exacerbated by the fact that playmaker Sergei Nazarenko is suspended for tonight's match while there are rumours emanating from Eastern Europe that the coach is immensely unhappy at the contribution of Ukrainian internationalist Aleksandr Rykun so far this season.

Additionally, defender Vladimir Yezerskiy and striker Aleksandr Melashchenko, both Ukrainian internationalists, are said to be injured and won't play tonight.

The unrest in the Dnipro camp shouldn't, however, mask the fact that Tony Mowbray's side face a tough battle to make the lucrative group stages of the UEFA Cup.

Dnipro reached the final 32 of last season's competition, topping a qualifying group which included Belgian side Club Brugge, Real Zaragoza of Spain and Dutch outfit Utrecht and were, in fact, only three minutes away from making further progression, losing 1-0 at home to Partizan Belgrade having drawn the first leg 2-2 in Serbia and Montenegro. The Ukrainian side also made the last 32 of the previous season's UEFA Cup, the final season of the old knock-out format, going down to a Didier Drogba penalty in Marseille's Velodrome.

Mowbray, however, won't have lost sight of the fact that six Dnipro players have formed part of Oleg Blokhin's national squad, the Ukrainians becoming the first European country to qualify for next summer's World Cup finals in Germany despite being drawn in a group containing Denmark and Turkey.

And the Hibs boss will be able to sympathise to a certain extent with Kucherevskiy who, like most Scottish managers, has to fend off those clubs with money to spend. Defender Vlacheslav Shevchuk and striker Ruslan Rotan were tempted away by the wages on offer from Dynamo Kiev and Donetsk who exert an Old Firm-style dominance in Ukrainian football.

Gone, too, is former Ukrainian footballer of the year Oleg Vegnlinsky who has joined AEK Athens, but Dnipro have brought in striker Sergei Kornilenko from Dynamo Kiev and Bodgan Shershun who played a peripheral part in CSKA Moscow's UEFA Cup triumph last season, the defender returning for a second spell with the club.

But while Dynamo Kiev and Donetsk rely increasingly on expensive imports from Brazil and Central Europe, Kucherevskiy, nicknamed "The Tailor" because of his ability to stitch together successful teams from limited resources, has stuck to his principle of building young teams based on local talent.

So much so, that the Dnipro squad contains just one foreign player, Kornilenko hailing from neighbouring Belarus.

Mowbray's squad may be a little more cosmopolitan but the principles are the same, a reliance placed on developing young players aided by a few more experienced players rather than on an open cheque-book. Kucherevskiy said: "Deciding to build a team relying mainly on Ukrainian players is a matter of principle for us.

"It means that we are at least four years away from even thinking about first or second place in the League."

Incremental and sustainable progress, it seems, isn't a mantra confined to Easter Road.

Whether Kucherevskiy is around in three or four years to see his plans come to fruition remains to be seen with the outcome of this first round tie and the Vysha Liga matches against third-placed Metalurg D and Chernomorets in sixth which separate the two games against Hibs perhaps crucial to his future.

However, with Seville, favourites to win the UEFA Cup, Sampdoria, Basel and Feyenoord having all been possible opponents, Dnipro, like Hibs, are happy enough with the draw with both claiming it represents the best possible chance for them to make further headway.

But Kucherevskiy was quick to correct the impression given at the time of the draw by Stetsenko who was quoted as saying Dnipro were "entitled" to count on getting to the next round."

He said: "I am sure that's not quite what he said. Perhaps he meant that facing Hibs is not like facing Real Madrid, Inter or Benfica and we are glad of that."

As Kucherevskiy added, Mowbray is thinking the same way while insisting it will be a tough ask for his young side who don't have anywhere near the same amount of European experience as their opponents.

And Dnipro do have the benefit of a "warm-up" in the UEFA Cup having played in the second qualifying round, an introduction denied Hibs when they were catapulted straight into the first round proper thanks to Liverpool's late elevation to the Champions League as the European authorities finally granted Rafa Benitez's side the opportunity to defend their title.

Dnipro hammered Armenian side Banants 8-2 on aggregate - but having had Hibs watched last weekend and having studied a video of the Easter Road side's 3-0 triumph at Ibrox, Kucherevskiy insisted Mowbray's players were "at a different level altogether".

How we expect them to play

DNIPRO go into tonight's match with the problems caused by a dismal start to the Vysha Liga compounded by the loss of four key players.

Playmaker Sergey Nazarenko is suspended while fellow internationalists defender Vladimir Yezerskiy, midfielder Aleksandr Rykun and striker Aleksandr Melashchenko are all injured.

With confidence at a low, veteran coach Evgeniy Kucherevskiy will most probably start with goalkeeper Artem Kusily behind a back three comprising of Andrey Rusol, Bogdan Shershun and Aleksazndr Grytsay.

Midfield will be packed in an attempt to stifle Hibs, leaving Belarus star Sergey Kornilenko, whose injury-time goal salvaged a point against Vorskla last weekend, as a sole striker supported from the middle of the park by 19-year-old Konstantin Kravchenko.