MOSCOW (AFP)
Dynamo Moscow coach Dan Petrescu believes that his players need
to work harder to fight back from a disastrous start to the
season but ruled out sweeping changes that he brought in at one
of his previous clubs.
"We all need to work harder than we previously did it," the
former Chelsea and Romania star was quoted as saying by the
Sports Express newspaper. "To give ourselves up to the work
completely is the only recipe which leads to success."
Dynamo are the only Russian top-flight side never to have been
relegated but have this season suffered five defeats in as many
matches and scored only one goal and are rooted to the bottom of
the Russian Premier League.
Petrescu, who took the helm just last week after stepping down at
Kuban Krasnodar, was previously at Romanian outfit Unirea, where
he off-loaded 22 players.
But he said the situation was different at Dynamo and he was
unlikely to take the same drastic action.
"Of course I want to win the Russian title with Dynamo," he
added. "It was a coercive measure as Unirea just won promotion
into the top flight and desperately needed radical renovation of
the roster."
Dynamo in contrast had better players, he added but still warned:
"They need to show desire and zeal -- the qualities that are
really precious in football. Every Dynamo player has serious
potential. Now they need to perform it on the pitch."
Petrescu meanwhile said he needed to learn to keep his emotions
in check, after earning a six-match touchline ban for insulting a
referee.
He blamed his temper on hating defeat: "When I'm losing I hate
myself and everything around and nothing can stop me. It's a
terrible problem for me. I hoped to force myself to keep my
emotions under control but still failed to do it."
Petrescu, who joined Kuban Krasnodar in 2009 and took them to the
Premier League the following year, said he thought the Russian
was improving.
"I believe that Russian football is moving the right direction.
It's no wonder that it's on a rise taking into consideration the
amount of investment in the league and its clubs," he added.
"Of course it's impossible to reach the highest level in just a
couple of years but I believe that Russian league can reach the
level of Italy's Serie A pretty soon."
