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It is reported that Vilnius has become the fifth club this season to change its strategy - on Monday, by mutual agreement, Saulius Širmelis stepped down from the position of head coach of the team.
The 49-year-old Širmelis, who in his previous career won three Lithuanian champion titles with the "Kaunas" club and helped the "Ventspils" team win the Latvian Cup twice, arrived at "Žalgiris" just before the start of the 2005 season.
The experienced coach managed to achieve historical victories with his players - the legendary capital club reached the semifinals of the Intertoto Cup and became the Lithuanian football club with the most stages passed in European tournaments.
It was more difficult for the Vilnius team in the "A league" championship, where "Žalgiris" lost 9 times in 18 matches and currently occupies the eighth place in the standings, behind only "Šiauliai" and Kėdainiai's "Nevėžis". However, the team still has opportunities to rise higher, as they have played 3-5 matches less than their opponents.
Nevertheless, the situation in the team seemed unsatisfactory to Širmelis, and he decided to step down. He will be replaced in the position of head coach by his assistant, the former famous player, Viačeslavas Sukristovas, who has been coaching the reserve team of "Polonia" for the past five years.
Meanwhile, according to unconfirmed information, due to disciplinary issues, two foreign players recently left "Žalgiris": Slovak Branislav Jašurekas and Belarusian Andrej Šilo. Both of them were not included in the team for the last two league matches played by the Vilnius club against "Atlantas" and "Kaunas".
