The Metalist Herald
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Serhiy Bolbat
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Metalist
Maksym Zaderaka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Door shut on Kirill Samoilenko
Metalist asked and LNZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Maksym Karavayev joins the Metalist first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksym Karavayev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Metalist promote Viktor Babenko from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Babenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Serhiy Rebrov joins the Metalist first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Serhiy Rebrov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Metalist promote Roman Shakhov from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roman Shakhov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bohdan Butko has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Metalist know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Metalist are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
- Squad No place for Maksym Lopyrionok in the new shape
- The dugout Metalist pick somebody else ahead of Volodymyr Makhankov
- Player ratings Petro Lutsiv stands above it all