1. Footymad
  2. Eagles Mad
  3. Eagles Latest
  4. Eagles News

CSKA Moscow's Nikola Vlasic Takes Swipe at Crystal Palace After Fedor Chalov Pursuit

​CSKA Moscow midfielder Nikola Vlasic has backed his teammate Fedor Chalov's decision to not sign for Crystal Palace, claiming that the south London club aren't an attacking team. 

Vlasic played 12 times in the Premier League for Everton in the 2017/18 season before leaving for CSKA a year later, and believes that his current teammate deserves to play for a better side than the Eagles.

Roy Hodgson's side were reportedly close to signing the Russian striker in the summer but the deal fell through with Palace and Chalov unable to come to an agreement, while the Eagles were reluctant to meet CSKA's asking price in the January window.

FBL-EUR-C1-REAL MADRID-CSKA

Vlasic has defended the abilities of his teammate, and as quoted by Championat (via Sport Witness), said: "I don’t think a team from the bottom half of the Premier League would be the right move for him. He’s a striker, he needs support.


"He needs to have chances to score goals. Palace aren’t an attacking team, so their style won’t suit Fedor. I think it’s better for him to stay at CSKA and play for the ​Champions League, than playing at ​Palace for avoiding relegation.


"I think he has the qualities to play the biggest teams in the world like ​Manchester City, ​Chelsea and ​Real Madrid.”

While Vlasic's criticisms of the Eagles is harsh, it's a fair assessment - Palace are the lowest scorers in the Premier League this season with just 22 so far.

Fedor Chalov

However, Chalov hasn't quite performed as well as he did last season when he scored 17 goals, only managing to score six goals in all competitions this year in a total of 27 games.


CSKA were said to be demanding £25m for Chalov - a price tag that put Palace and Chelsea off of a deal for him last month. The Eagles settled on signing Cenk Tosun on loan, while the Blues didn't bring in a striker before the deadline.


Source : 90min