Dick Advocaat: The level of the Russian league has gone down

Russian national team head coach Dick Advocaat, said that the Premier League teams used to show a better football and praised the performance of his team in the Euro 2012 qualification during his press-conferecne on the eve of the match of Euro 2012 qualification against Armenia, reports Sports.ru correspondent Igor Borunov.

«I think that my view of football does not differ much from Hiddink’s one. We both like attacking football. The only major difference between my team and the one Gus has been coaching is that my players are three years older. Actually, they are the same in all other ways.

«At every press conference I’m asked the question about new players. New players need to be better than those we already have, but so far I do not see these players. We all hope that they will appear sooner or later.

«We have all the information about Armenia, our next rival. They will build on how we play.

«Arshavin’s playing style has not changed much actually since the time I have been working with him at Zenit St. Petersburg. Andrey is not the player who runs here and there all 90 minutes. He is the player who makes decisions and creates moments out of nothing, scoring goals then. Yes, in recent games he has not scored, but tomorrow there will just be a good chance to score at last.

«When I was coaching Zenit, the level of the team and the championship as a whole was higher. CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow played better. Now the level of the Russian championship, in my opinion, has gone down.

«As for the national team, I think we have a very good team, we are having a good qualification round. Yes, we need to improve our results in friendly games, but we have a very good team in general. I would not compare it with Zenit I used to coach. But the way I want this team to play is similar to Zenit style, which means playing attacking football,» said the coach.