Leonid Slutskiy: We lacked freshness
— It’s been tough period for us for a while. The opposition was very committed tonight, while we lacked freshness and human resources to hold the win. PFC CSKA was attacking the most of the time, but we have to admire Anji’s efforts. We didn’t manage to create a lot of chances, thus the result is fair.
— What did you say to your players in the break?
— We said that Anji will try to equalize, so we had to continue with the football which we showed in the first half.
— How would you rate Vasin’s performance? It seemed that he was a bit nervous.
— I don’t think so. Vasin is qualified player. In the last weeks he played in the Russian Cup, Russian Championship, he was capped for the national team and played in the Champions League. And he wasn’t nervous in those matches.
— Don’t you think that your team is in crisis? Maybe the lack of the players is the reason for that?
— I don’t think that we’re in crisis. We’re exhausted. Since July we never had a full week to prepare for the next match. At the same time we have serious targets in the national league as well as in Europe. We just lack energy and it’s hard to claim our players. You should remember that we even had a chance to win all those lost matches against Wolfsburg, Krasnodar, Manchester United etc. We just lack freshness to put the squeeze on the opposition in the last minutes, as we did in the beginning of the season.
— Do you plan to fight with PSV for the place in the Europe Laegue play-offs, or are you ready to sacrifice this tournament?
— In any big club such as PFC CSKA it’s impossible to sacrifice any tournament. If anybody says like this, he is dodging. PFC CSKA sets the maximum goals.
— Will the starting line-up change in the next two matches?
— Tomorrow Vasiliy Berezutskiy will join the main group. Sergey Ignashevich will be back to the full training in the coming days.
— Are there any transfers coming up in the winter window?
— For many years we have selective transfers. The situation will be the same in the winter as well as in the summer windows.
Makhachkala, Russia
Moscow,
Russia