Armenian Head Coach on Invited and Injured Players

Amsterdam Football Club Ajax forward Araz Özbiliz continues to draw the attention of the Armenian national team’s coaching staff, said team coach Vardan Minasyan, speaking to reporters in Yerevan today.

 

Minasyan noted that until the matches with Slovakia and Andorra, due to injuries, Özbiliz wasn’t playing in the club and has only just begun to train with the team.

 

Asked about FC Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast defender Denis Tumasyan, who was invited by the Armenian team prior to the last two matches, Minasyan answered curtly, “We invited him. He didn’t come.”

 

During the press conference, journalists once again asked him to provide details concerning the situation with Tumasyan, to which Minasyan said after he received the invitation, Tumasyan said he would come to the team, but then didn’t. The head coach suggested journalists direct their questions to Tumasyan.

 

Ahead of its matches with Macedonia and Ireland in October, the Armenian team has a problem in the central defense zone since defender Hrayr Mkoyan is out. The head coach mentioned that Valeri Aleksanyan will take up one of the defenders’ positions, while the other position will be filled by Robert Arzumanyan, if he recovers from his injuries.

 

“If Arzumanyan can’t play, then we’ll try to find other options,” said Minasyan.

 

He also mentioned that Armenian forward Yura Movsisyan, who received injuries during the match with Slovakia, has already recovered and will play in the next match with his team in the Russian FC Krasnodar.