Psychological problems affect Pavlyuchenko’s performances

Tottenham Hotspur striker Roman Pavlyuchenko suffers from psychological problems due to his bad relationship with manager Harry Redknapp. His agent says Pavlyuchenko feels he is not trusted by his coach.

The Russia international is fourth choice at White Hart Lane behind Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch and has spent most of this season warming the substitutes bench.

He was handed a rare start during Tottenham’s 2-0 League Cup victory over Everton on Tuesday night, but did not perform well.

Pavlyuchenko’s agent, Oleg Artemov, claimed that the striker’s performances on the pitch are being affected by “psychological problems”.

“His poor performance recently is not due to a lack of match practice but psychological problems.

“Of course, not getting into the starting line-up, sitting on the bench is not good for any player.

“But Roman is much more affected by the feeling that the manager doesn’t trust him and prefers to use other forwards,” Artemov told The Sun.

Artemov has once again hinted that Pavlyuchenko will look to leave if he doesn’t get more starts.

“The World Cup is next summer, to waste another half a year on the bench may be very bad for his international career.

“It may become clearer after our next meeting with Redknapp.

“Roman and I plan to talk to him again after Russia’s two World Cup play-off games against Slovenia in November.”