The Serbian Mladen Kerstaich took over the national team of Bulgaria in the summer and already with his first call-ups caused a major question and the dissatisfaction of the coach of CSKA 1948 Luboslav Penev.
The reason – Ivaylo Chochev was absent among his selections for the final matches of the League of Nations with Gibraltar and North Macedonia.
At that time, the midfielder was already leading the league’s top scorer list and was the basis of the good performance and top ranking of the Peneva squad.
Kerstaich did not call Chochev for the November controls with Cyprus and Luxembourg either. Thus, the question whether his choice was episodic was dropped.
From an informed source, “24 Chasa” learned the reasons for the decision of the former national coach of Serbia regarding the midfielder. And they are 3 in total.
The main one, according to Kirstaich, is the limited movement of Chochev in his role as a defensive midfielder.
In addition, according to the observations of the 48-year-old coach, the Bulgarian’s passes were mostly sideways and backwards.
These two factors, combined with Chochev’s age – he will turn 30 in February, and correspondingly decreasing chances of a change, totally made Kirstaich write him off.
After his debut, he stated that he was looking for fast, energetic and classy players.
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