Soccer-Spartak Moscow sack coach Karpin

(Adds dateline) MOSCOW, March 18 - Spartak Moscow have sacked coach Valery Karpin due to the club's poor form after the winter break, the Russian Premier League side said. Spartak, third in the league - four points behind leaders Lokomotiv Moscow - drew 2-2 at home to bottom side Anzhi Makhachkala on Monday. They lost 1-0 at relegation battlers Terek Grozny a week earlier and were also knocked out of their domestic cup competition 1-0 by second division Tosno. "The head coach answers to everything and I have issues with the head coach," said Spartak owner Leonid Fedun. "Karpin was given every footballer that he wanted, but he does not have the results to back this up. We had a real shot at winning the championship title, but this is floating away." Former Russia international Karpin became Spartak's general director in 2008 and took over as head coach from Michael Laudrup a year later. He twice led the Muscovites to second place in the Russian Premier League, in 2009 and 2012, before stepping down to allowing Unai Emery to take charge. However, the Spaniard was relieved of his duties in November with Karpin once again taking over as head coach and stepping down as general manager. Spartak are the 10th Russian top-flight club to change their head coach this season. (Reporting by Dmitriy Rogovitskiy; editing by Justin Palmer)