• Striker has barely featured for Spurs this
season
• 'If he is not playing, it is worrying' says coach Guus
Hiddink
Guus Hiddink has warned Roman Pavlyuchenko that he
is wasting his talent and has urged the striker to start fighting
for his place at Tottenham Hotspur or risk being left out of the
Russia squad. The Russia manager, who admitted that
he is concerned with Pavlyuchenko's lack of football at club level,
believes the 27-year-old has failed to recapture the form he showed
at Euro 2008 and claimed that the forward's laid-back approach
means that "almost daily you have to grab him".
Pavlyuchenko has played only 11 minutes of Premier League
football this season and is behind Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and
Robbie Keane in the pecking order at White Hart Lane. The former
Spartak Moscow player revealed that he would be willing to listen
to offers last month but, with the transfer window now closed, his
immediate future lies at Spurs. Hiddink maintains he can make an
impact there if he applies himself in the right way.
"He must start fighting for his position at Tottenham," said the
Dutchman, who watched Pavlyuchenko come off the substitutes' bench
to score the third goal against Wales in the World Cup qualifying
victory last night. "When he is playing he must commit himself. If
he is not playing, it is worrying. He is depending on the
competition for his place in the national squad. If I had more
strikers of a high level it would be difficult for him. But I like
him very much.
"He does not use his talents at the top level. When you saw him
in the Euros [in 2008] he was well-trained, he was fit, he was in a
good way aggressive. He was top. He showed what he can do. But
almost daily you have to grab him and put him under pressure. He
has a lot of power. I like to challenge him to use his power. He is
sometimes laid-back in using his talents."