Dusko Vujosevic left head coaching position

By the initiative of the club Dusko Vujosevic was fired as CSKA head coach. His assistant Dmitry Shakulin named team’s interim coach.

CSKA junior team head coach Andrey Maltsev is added to the main team’s coaching staff. Sasa Filipovski has left the team.

Andrey Vatutin, CSKA President:

To tell you the truth the decision to part with Dule was extremely difficult. Before the game at Milan we believed that the situation can be changed and we did our best to prove it. We considered the invitation of Mr. Vujosevic from strategic point of view. Our idea was to let Dusko soften the transition period for the team, to make young players improve and to build new winning dynasty. We have no doubts in coaching qualities of Vujosevic – he proved them by his work in previous clubs and National Teams. Any model supposes that you can miss something planned. Unfortunately Dusko wasn’t able to effectively organize evolution process. Obviously, it is not his fault that we have a queue of injuries. The head coach cannot help experienced players to make free throws and to score from the lay-ups in important moments. At the same time Vujosevic wasn’t able to find common language with the team – both directly and figuratively. All the problems of transition period sharpened, that led to lack of confidence and motivation by the players, coaches, staff. The control over the game decreased, it was extremely tough to see helpless team. The changes were of critical importance. We are very sorry to part with Dule, intelligent, livable person. We appreciate his work and we are sure that his career will take another successful turn. We will plan the other ways of developing the team. 2010-11 season is not finished. We will fight until the end. We will try to use our chances. Missing Euroleague Top 16 will be a distress. We will do our best to avoid it. The art is not in avoiding the falls but in standing up after the fall.

Dusko Vujosevic:

When I had the chance to chose I took the offer from CSKA. At that point I figured that building a new team means more time and patience. Unfortunately, my adaptation, the process of familiarizing myself with the situation coincided with other problems. We started without several players due to injuries. Then there was the uncertainty of Holden, another injury by Siskauskas. Besides the fact that the absence of these players has added problems, we had to return them in condition and adapt to a team game. The adoption of the new system was a problem. Plus the added complexities of the American tour and our first defeat in the Euroleague by Milan was its direct consequence. The schedule of games in the Euroleague was very hard: so far from six games, we had only two at home - vs Armani Jeans and Olimpija. Surely, upon excluding at least some of these problems, the beginning of the season for us would have been much better. There are two types of coaches: those who have been fired, and those who are not fired yet... CSKA Moscow is a great club that I want as quickly as possible to return to the path of victories.