Leonid Slutsky has urged his side to win their fourth league title this season and has denied that Aleksei Berezutski is set to leave Luzhniki stadium this January
CSKA Moscow head coach, Leonid Slutsky, has backed his side to win their fourth Russian Premier League title this season after making the crowd go crazy with their jaw dropping performances this season.
As things stand, the Moscow-based club are leading the standings with 43 points, a place above mega-rich Anzhi Makhachkala and five points clear from the defending league champions, Zenit St. Petersburg.
The 41-year-old manager lamented the club’s shocking European exit this time around, saying that they sacrificed the European cup in order to maintain their focus on the league title.
The Moscow-based club managed to win the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup under Oleg Romantsev along with winning the league title three times since the inception of the Russian top division back in 2001.
But CSKA failed to progress to the group stages of UEFA Europa League this time around after losing the play-off round against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AIK-c38243 Athens 2-1 on aggregate.
“It is good that we are fighting for the top places but we should also remember that we are not playing in the European competition for the first time in nine years. And I don’t think that our current place on the league table
can compensate for the fact that we're not playing in European competition," the Russian Cup winner was quoted as saying.
Slutsky went on to deny the reports linking http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aleksei-Berezutski-c4636 to a host of top European clubs this winter after saying that the Russian defender is not likely to leave Luzhniki stadium in the near future.
“He's not going anywhere. He has no reason to leave Moscow. We have now changed the game model and can hardly think about playing without Berezutski, who can play as a wing back and generally shows the highest level of football
in the team," he concluded.
If speculations are to be believed, Schalke are reportedly interested in signing the 30-year-old Russian International as a potential cover to Manchester United bound Benedikt Howedes.
Tags: