Stanislav Cherchesov spoke with Sport-Express correspondent Igor Larin about upcoming performances of the Russian national and latest news from the Premier League.

WE SHALL LET ADVOKAAT DO HIS BUSINESS

- The Russian national lost the first choice goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev before key qualification games of Euro 2012 campaign. How serious do you think this loss is?

- I spoke to Russian national coach Dick Advokaat before the Spartak Moscow vs CSKA Moscow derby fixture and he kindly gave me an opportunity to attend several workouts of the Russian national team in Luzhniki. I can therefore tell as a live witness that the team is doing everything to make up for Akinfeev’s injury. This is definitely a huge loss, in terms of sports, emotions and human feelings. And it pretty much seems that Igor will be replaced by Malafeev who works with great attitude and is having a fantastic season.

- Do you believe in Malafeev?

- The level of psychological tolerance is raised to the highest level in clubs like FC Zenit. Vacheslav numerously proved his preparedness to challenges of any kind. And he proved this particularly in games against our future opponent Macedonia, when he came in as a substitute in purely extreme circumstances and denied a penalty kick right away.

- How many points must be collected during the home series of two games?

- You cannot say “must” when it comes to sports. But Advokaat clearly understands that getting six points gets us next to the trip to Ukraine and Poland.

- Do you agree with Russian experts’ criticism of Advokaat for being overconservative and unwilling to invite new players into the national?

- I think that Advokaat is on the right track. We have CSKA-based defense that took several years to build, a steady Zenit-based midfield and several strikers from different countries and clubs. This is the reason why Advokaat is exercising a fundamental approach to matters of team formation. The best is the enemy of the good. Especially that certain refreshment of the lineup is still taking place. Glushakov has become a team member and Shunin has also recently been invited, to name a few.

- Bulykin was transferred to Ajax but is continuously ignored by Advokaat…

- I think we shall let Advokaat do his business. Especially when it comes to a player who performs in Advokaat’s home championship, the one that he knows in and out. At the same time, Bulykin is making an obvious progress as scoring so many goals is difficult even in such distinctive tournament as the Dutch championship.

STRUNG-UP VELLITON

- The injury that Akinfeev suffered in his collision with Spartak striker Velliton has now been discussed for the whole week…

- CSKA goalkeeper was first to get to the ball, but Brazilian striker was playing until the end and did not quite figure his moving pattern. Football goalkeepers are most vulnerable to tough collisions in football. The result is an unfortunate and serious injury by negligence. By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to wish the soonest recovery to excellent goalkeeper and outstanding person Igor Akinfeev.

- Are you surprised by fans up in arms against Velliton? Who came to Spartak Moscow when you were coaching the team.

- Velliton has a bad credit history. But I personally know him as an exemplary player for his professional approach to workouts and partners in his own and opponent teams. But I am slightly worried that at times he appears strung-up in this and previous seasons. Perhaps this is how Spartak’s unstable performance affects one of the best strikers of Russian Premier League and one of my most favorite players. He does not have the opportunity to fulfill his leadership ambitions as a result.

- It is the second time under Valery Karpin that Spartak is knocked out of Eurocups. A total disaster?

- Let us keep from big words. When the Red-and-Whites got a lucky draw in the face of Legia, that is now found in the middle of the Polish League, everybody was confident that Spartak would make it through to the group stage of the Europe League. But football is both fair and cruel.

It is quite painful for me as a Spartak person to admit that play-off results have been cruel but fair for Spartak Moscow. We have not seen a consistent play during the entire 180 minutes and moments of fine performance took turns with complete failures. And Legia managed to take advantage of its modest resources as a result.

WE COVERED AN ENTIRE EPOCH WITH DASAEV

- It is now the fourth season that Spartak Moscow’s new management is busy with team building. 40 million EUR are invested into transfers every summer, with players coming and going and club budget growing from year to year. But the team is still in decline.

- It was just several months ago when I highlighted the key problem in another interview with your newspaper. The club does not have an established system of balances and counterbalances, which leads to a systemic error.

- Spartak Moscow changed six goalkeepers – Pletikosa, Djanaev, Pesyakov, Belenov, Zabolotny, Dikan – over the last three seasons. Is this how things are supposed to be?

- Perhaps, this question should better be addressed to people in charge of selection at Spartak. But it is clear to everybody that such a mess produces a serious impact upon the defense and end results. Spartak has well established goalkeeper traditions. Rinat Dasaev, Aleksey Prudnikov and me have covered an almost 20-year epoch which is considered by many fans as Spartak’s most glorious. We can not anticipate new victories unless these traditions are maintained.

- You have always preferred Pletikosa, but after the new management came he had to sit out games and was later offered for transfer. Do you think that Pletikosa would still be of greatest value to Spartak?

- There is no doubt that Pletikosa is a European class goalkeeper and he proved this by his appearances for both Spartak and the Croatian national. Pletikosa particularly stands out for his football intelligence. But Spartak decided to not use his services any longer due to the limit on foreign players. It is up to fans to judge whether this was a correct decision. What I personally think is that few foreign players in the Russian League are at Pletikosa’s level. You can see that he recently appeared for Rostov and confirmed his qualifications after two years of sitting out. And this answers your question.

- Spartak missed five goals in two games against Legia and ten in two games against Porto. Is the situation with players as bad as with goalkeepers?

- I would not divide the team into separate lines. Defense is not only about individual skills, but about team actions as well. This is especially true at the European level where not a single mistake is forgiven. And then again, we are getting distracted by details. The key problem is about the systemic error I referred to earlier.

- You talked to Advokaat at Spartak Moscow vs CSKA Moscow game. How did you like the main derby fixture of the Russian League?

- That was a fine derby. And as a Spartak person, I am particularly happy about our fans who formed two thirds of the crowd despite the challenges that the team is currently facing. It was noticeable that Spartak fans are nervous and seriously concerned about the recent failures. But people’s faith in Spartak makes me believe that the club will overcome the crisis sooner or later.

WORK IN SOCHI WAS NOT IN VAIN

- A question about Zhemchuzhina in the end. Are you still upset that the team was closed?

- Yes, it is very sad that we could not finish the season we had started so well. So I am following updates from my former players in Sochi. I am happy that young players who passed pre-season preparations in Zhemchuzhina were in great demand and prove their skills around the country. This particularly applies to Zotov of Spartak Moscow, Golban of Lokomotiv Moscow, Belousov of Torpedo Moscow, Rukhaia of Spartak Nalchik. I am also happy about senior players, such as Boyarintsev, who started successfully in Tomsk, and Cech, who will appear in the Champions League with Viktoria Plzen. This means that pre-season preparations were not in vain.

- Has Zhemchuzhina repaid all debts outstanding to players and coaching staff?

- Club president Dmitry Yakushev is a man of his word, which he proved at the beginning of the season when we worked in harmony and understood each other perfectly. He said that Zhemchuzhina would repay the outstanding balance by October 31. I have no doubts that this is how it is going to be.