Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin admits the worst thing about being a team boss is feeling the pain of his players as he prepares for the match with World Cup Group G winners Switzerland.

Blokhin was, with the possible exception of legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin, the greatest footballer produced by the former Soviet Union but admits life as the manager of the independent Ukraine team can be a headache.

Asked what the biggest difference between playing in a World Cup and coaching in one was, Blokhin said: "It's much easier to be a player who only has responsibility for himself and nothing else.

"The coach has to think for everyone and if one person in the team has a problem then it's a problem for the coach as well. Everyone's problem belongs also to the coach."

Blokhin has three headaches ahead of the clash with a Switzerland side that has not yet conceded a goal.

Andriy Rusol and Vyacheslav Sviderskyi are both suspended after accumulating two yellow cards in the Group H campaign while Blokhin must also wait and see if a third defender, Vladimir Yezerski, will recover in time for the clash.

"He's injured (Yezerski) but maybe he can still play.

"I have still to decide what I am going to do about central defence - there is still a day to go before I have to make my mind up," said Blokhin. "I have not decided."

Blokhin, European footballer of the year in 1975, has become a national hero with the newly-independent Ukraine after leading the former Soviet Republic to their first World Cup as a separate national entity.

However, the former Dynamo Kiev forward refuses to take the credit for Ukraine's emergence as a footballing nation in its own right.

"This is not the responsibility of me as a coach," said Blokhin. "The people who deserve the credit for that are those coaches who have been bringing people through at youth level - they are the ones who moulded these players.

"My job is only to look after the team and prepare the team - the players are already up to the necessary standard."

Ukraine were the first European team to qualify for the World Cup, progressing from a very tough group that contained European champions Greece, 2002 World Cup bronze medalists Turkey and Denmark.

However, their campaign got off to a bad start in Germany with a 4-0 thrashing by Spain although subsequent victories over Saudi Arabia and Tunisia have restored some momentum.

The Switzerland-Ukraine clash is perhaps the least glamorous of the round of 16 games but Blokhin said: "Any team that qualifies for the last 16 of the World Cup is by definition a good team."