The Karpaty manager continues to play musical chairs at the goalkeeper position as he once again dropped Martin Bogatinov to the bench.
During today’s Karpaty vs. Obolon game, the starting keeper for the home side was Andriy Tlumak with Martin Bogatinov on the bench as the #2 keeper. There has been no stability at that position as Karpaty manager Aleh Konanaw continues to go back and forth between Tlumak and Bogatinov. Martin Bogatinov began the season as the starter but then lost his place to Tlumak. After a couple of games, the manager went back to Bogatinov before changing his mind yet again and going back to Tlumak. Bogatinov was back as the starting keeper in the last couple of games but Konanaw went back to Tlumak for today’s game. Karpaty drew 0:0 against Obolon who is currently the last placed team in the Ukrainian top division.
Karpaty has been the biggest disappointment in Ukraine this season. They finished in 5th place last year and recently participated in the Europa League qualifications but they have gotten off to a terrible start in the league season. Karpaty only has 7 points from ten league games and they are in 14th place out of 16 teams. The biggest problem for Karpaty has not been the goalkeeper position, but rather the attack as they have only scored seven goals this season. However, for some reason, the manager continues to change keepers as opposed to figuring out the attacking department.
Bogatinov is currently the starter for the Macedonian national team. He started the two recent EURO 2012 qualifiers earlier this month against Russia and Andorra. Martin conceded one goal in the two games. To date, he has made 6 appearances for the senior national team. He joined Karpaty in the 2011 January transfer window from Macedonian club Rabotnicki. Bogatinov was given the best player away in the Macedonian top division for the year 2010 by the Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) before his eventual move to Ukrainian club Karpaty. Martin finished last year as the starter and also began this season as the preferred starter but as mentioned before, the Karpaty manager has been playing musical chairs and has been going back and forth between Tlumak and Bogatinov.
Bogatinov’s competition on the national team include Tome Pacovski, Edin Nuredinoski, Darko Tofiloski, and Kristijan Naumovski. Nuredinoski and Tofiloski play regularly for their respective clubs while Pacovski and Naumovski are currently the #3 keepers for Beerschot and Dinamo Bucureşti, respectively. Macedonia does have some talented young keepers coming up in 17-year-old Stole Dimitrievski and 18-year-old Dejan Stojanović so those guys will soon enter the picture for the senior national team if they continue to develop at a fast pace. Dimitrievski will join Italian club Udinese in January while Stojanović is already a member of fellow Italian club Bologna and is currently the starting keeper for the Bologna Primavera team.