Backstage/ The Serbian coach spoils Silvinho's plans: We don't play with amateurs

2023-10-17 10:44:48, Sport CNA

The coach of the Bulgarian national team, Mladen Krstaiç, appeared before the media yesterday, where he gave his answers regarding the situation in the team, the future and the friendly with Albania. Serbia also revealed a detail about tomorrow's match regarding the number of substitutions, where it shows that Silvinho has asked them to agree that 9 such substitutions will be allowed in this friendly.

"The coach of Albania asked me if we could make nine changes in the match. This is a match at the level of national teams, not a challenge between clubs", was the answer of the coach of Bulgaria, who then spoke about this friendly and his future on the bench of this national team.

"Of course we had some time to recover from the shock against Lithuania, only two days. We haven't trained that much, psychologically we have to get up, we are not at war, we have to play football. As for my future, I am here, as you see. For tomorrow (today), we do not play against amateurs, we are a new team that is still developing. Albania is ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland in the ranking. I don't want any pressure on the boys, maybe on me.

The next match is a friendly, I expect moral support. Whatever you have, throw it at me. The most important thing is not whether I will stay, but the boys. The problem is not Krstaic, but for the boys to develop. I am talking about the interest of Bulgarian football. I had difficult moments both as a player and as a coach. It is important to have character, to stand up.

In the Balkans, we are people of extremes, we either lift people up or bury them in the ground. I have players in the team who do not play for their clubs, but there is no better than them. In time you will see that I was right. This is not the time to talk about the big problem in Bulgarian football here, because it will look like an excuse.

See how many foreigners play in Serbia and Croatia and do the math. If there are no Bulgarians playing in the Bulgarian championship, it is better to close it", said Mladen Krstaiç, before the friendly match with Albania.