MOSCOW, October 5 (R-Sport) – CSKA Moscow's new Brazilian forward Vitinho has had trouble adapting at the Russian Premier League side, coach Leonid Slutsky admitted on Saturday.
The 19-year-old made an instant impact with a bright debut in a 1-0 win over FC Rostov earlier this month, but has been quiet in his three other appearances since.
"The guy's talented, but he is not fitting into the side at all from the everyday nuances to training sessions," Slutsky said ahead of CSKA's Moscow derby against Dynamo on Sunday.
"Vitinho's finding it hard to stick to our training regime. A couple of times we put him right in the thick of it but then realized it was a bit premature," Slutsky said in comments to his club's website.
When he arrived in a reported 10 million euro move from Botafogo, Vitinho claimed to be the spiritual successor to CSKA’s Brazilian fan favorite Vagner Love and vowed he would be a key player for the reigning Russian champions.
"Now we'll be using Vitinho a bit less. He needs time to become of use to the team, and how long this will be depends on the player himself."
CSKA's have suffered a poor run of recent form that has seen the champions lose two of their last three league games and with it their hold on the top spot, sinking to fourth.
