Jose Couceiro has enlightened two factors that have played a vital role in Lokomotiv Moscow’s decline last season and commented on Loko’s transfer policy
Jose Couceiro, who resigned as the head coach at Lokomotiv Moscow last month, has tried to provide the reasons behind the Railroaders below par Russian Premier League campaign last season.
Lokomotiv had a poor campaign, having failed to secure UEFA Champions League football after finishing 7th in the league table. The Parovozy, meanwhile, would have qualified for UEFA Europa League had they claimed the
Russian Cup last season.
The Red-greens have now appointed Slaven Bilic as their new manager. However, the 43-year-old manager, who is currently managing the Croatian national team, will start working with the Russian outfit after the end of Euro 2012.
The fact that Lokomotiv’s vice-president, Alexei Smertin, has resigned from his post displeases Couceiro, who has blamed the upper management to play a big part in his resignation.
“Somewhere at the end of March, the problems started to begin, the reasons for which i still cannot figure out. I think that there are two factors that influenced Lokomotiv’s performance: it is lack of teamwork and some individual
errors.”
“But most importantly, the change in the structure of the club occurred at the wrong moment. We would have achieved greater success had we continued the way we were playing from March to May. I do not understand why Smertin stopped
working with us. It affected the team.” The former Sporting Lisbon manager was quoted as saying.
The former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186 head coach has also distanced himself from signing a host of strikers during his stay at Lokomotiv stadium. Couceiro has insisted he was not fully involved in the transfer policy at the Moscow-based club.
Though, the Railroaders had decent strikers at their disposal, mainly Maicon and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Felipe-Caicedo-c13525 last year.
Couceiro has conceded that he contributed in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alberto-c4309 Zapater’s signing during his managerial reign at Moscow. The Portuguese tactician managed to sign the 26-year-old midfielder from Sporting Lisbon.
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