Coincidence or not, the worst streak of the season for Real Sociedad, the revelation team so far, has coincided with the month that he has been injured. His return is yearned for by all the txuri-urdin fans, and except for surprise, it will take place in the San Mamés derby, as he explains in this interview given to Diario AS, in which, in addition, he talks about the pothole that has kept the donostiarras to be candidates for the league title.
First of all, what every Real fan wants to read said by yourself, is it already recovered? How are you from the injury?
Well, recovered more or less, waiting to have the feeling of playing again, which is at the end that is when you really see if you are all right or not.
But do you feel ready to play at San Mamés? I say this because we have already seen Antea train with the group and then not be able to participate in the next game. This is not going to be one more of that type …
Well, I have that feeling, but there is still some time left for the game and anything can happen. It depends on how these days evolve, the sensations you have, we will see. I feel good right now and as this time until the game passes, we will see.
Has it cost you more to come back with this injury than you thought and that is why you want to be careful when saying if you are fully recovered?
That is always a feeling of oneself, of how you look, it hurts or it doesn't hurt, an injury bothers or bothers a lot to spend more or less time. It depends on each one and how I feel. In the end, this injury did not seem entirely serious or at first it was grade 1, which is usually between 18 and 20 days of recovery. If you want to talk about deadlines or whatever, it is more or less within schedule. But if I tell you that the sensations at the end last week were not one hundred percent security and to have the option of not happening again, although that can never be assured, it was decided to wait a little longer.
LaLiga Santander
* Data updated as of December 29, 2020
The worst streak of the season catches him injured when he was playing everything, how have you handled it?
You suffer more from the outside than playing. It is a cliché, but it is reality. Because you see yourself unable to help or do something in a match.
Is this losing streak of nine games without winning being exaggerated or should it be relativized?
In the end it is clear that the important thing is to win, and many times it does not matter how it is. But the image that the team has given in the games that have been lost is not bad. It is not a feeling of doing things wrong at all, the team competes, always faces. We want to have more points, but we are proud of how we have raised all the games.
So do you like that phrase by Imanol that says that “having won more games we would be happier, but not more proud of what this team does”?
It is so. You cannot ask the team to put a better attitude, put more enthusiasm, and do more things well. Then there are those in which you will give an extra touch that you should not give, you will finish out by centimeters … but football is that and that is why we like it so much. But nothing can be blamed on this team and we should be very proud. But we want to continue like this, improving, succeeding and winning, but continuing with the line of work that we carry out.
It may be a coincidence, but this drop in results coincides with his injury, that of Silva, Aritz, Januzaj, Guridi … they are too important casualties!
Well that's something you always do, right? Wanting what you don't have. In the end it is clear that injuries decrease, because fewer players are available, but I don't think it is a matter of names. Because whoever plays has been shown to give the level and it does not matter who has been out.
So they are not worried in the locker room for having nine games in a row without winning?
Worried is not the best word to define how we are. There is no concern, but it is clear that we want to win. We are not pulling each other's hair in the locker room and neither is everyone eating their heads at home, but logically we are looking at what we are doing wrong, because we will be doing something wrong not to win now. We are not going crazy, but we are busy with what to do to win again as soon as possible.
Do you feel in the dressing room that they have almost melted into these short days of rest that they have had and that fatigue influences the downturn in recent games?
It is inevitable to be tired or to feel the load of matches, of course. With the situation we live in and the busy schedule that has occurred, it is logical that fatigue is noticeable, but it is not an excuse and we do not want to put it. Everyone is competing on the same dates and equally. These three days we have disconnected and rested, because the head is very important, and we return with a lot of desire to win again. We feel prepared.
This leads me to make the following approach: Don't you think that the calendar is overloaded and that the footballer's health is put at risk?
I think everyone shares my opinion: nowadays players are taken very little into account and football has become a business that has to pay off. There are many contracts, interests … and although we are the ones who play, there is a point where we are not really taken into account. We play every few days, the deadlines between matches are getting shorter and shorter … and that results in more and more players being injured and with fewer minutes the players suffer more muscle problems. It is no coincidence, and all that is being demonstrated. We know that it is something that is there, we live with it despite commenting on it and in the end we have no choice but to put up with it in this way.
And how do you manage to cope with a schedule so full of matches? Because if they have been through it, it has been hard, what comes to them at the beginning of 2021 is tremendous …
Well, the truth is that you don't have time to train or prepare on the field what you want to do in the next game, you have to do it through videos. And what you train on the field is for those who have less minutes. It's a learning situation, we want to get used to this, because that means playing in Europe every year. We are learning from all this, even if it is not easy. And that must also be taken into account.
And so, in this context for Real, the Basque derby of San Mamés arrives, is it a double-edged sword for you because of how you arrive?
That does not matter, because we have shown that even if we have not won for a few weeks, we go out to compete without being affected by whether we win or lose, and that is important. It is a special game that has joined us with this bad streak, but we will go out as always and with very clear ideas, with the mentality of winning again no matter what. It will not affect us to take a few weeks without winning. It does not put more pressure on us.
By classification and by playing without an audience in San Mamés, do you consider Real to be a bit more favorite in this derby?
I do not think so. In derbies, as much as the situation is different, everything is equal when the match begins. There are no distinctions, no favorites.
And how do you see Athletic getting to the derby? Has your start full of doubts surprised you?
Well I do not know. It's that the league is very even and it can happen to anyone to have a bad streak. They did not start out well, but in the last month they have turned the situation around and are competing very well, and that will make the game very close. But it will be a purely sporting dispute, then the rivalry will stay on the field, of course, as always. That's the beauty of these derbies.
It seems a wink of fate that this rare 2020 closes with a great Basque derby, even if it is without an audience in the stands …
(Smiles) Well yes, because it is a special match for everyone. You experience something very beautiful that you don't have in other places, and that essence cannot be lost. There are times when things happen on the pitch that they shouldn't, but in general this game is a marvel, although without the fans it is clear that it loses a lot of what is special about it.
Can it be like a dress rehearsal for the Basque derby in the Cup final?
It might be a good test, yes. But the Cup final still catches us a long way off and I am sure that later they will be different games, because one is a league game and the other is life or death to win a title.
And if I give you the choice between which of those two Basque derbies you want to win, the final or this league, what do you tell me? Or is there time to think about that?
I haven't thought about it. Is that the game you want to win is the following. You are not thinking about the game you have in April, but that when you go out to the field the one that matters to you is this. Now we only think about this Basque derby, and the final will come. You have to be calm.
Tell me, what note do you give to this strange 2020 that is ending?
Well, it is very difficult to put aside the context that we have lived in order to assess what we have done in sport. It is impossible to escape from that, and it should not be done. But the year in sports is clear that it has been very good for Real. It could have been better, of course; but we have to be happy and proud of what we have done and what we are transmitting.
It is that they are third in the League despite that bad streak of three defeats in a row …
Yeah sure. But there are teams that have games without playing and until that is normalized it is difficult to talk about the classification. But beyond that, I am left with the feeling that the team is transmitting against any team.
How many times have you dreamed of being in the quarry of getting to the first team and being the leader of the First team! And that has happened this season …
So many. And it's so pretty. It's what you dream of. But you have to put your feet on the ground and appreciate that what we are doing is not easy. And just because we're at the top, we don't have to have the obligation to always win and do everything perfectly. Our desire and the desire to always be the First will be there, but we have to be aware of who we are and value what we are doing.
I admit that this year it had crossed my mind that this Real could collect the debt of what he was denied in 2003 with that painful runner-up …
Let's see, I think that thinking about those things in the end does not help us. I understand that outside you can think. But having that in mind all the time is not good for us. Because it adds an extra pressure point. We only think about the next game and there is no use thinking about where we are going to be in a few months if you don't get the next game forward.
So we have to rule out Real from the fight for the League?
We have never thought about that. What others say or think is up to you. This Real makes its way, just like others made theirs. And nothing more. Whatever happens, we will always fight to be as high as possible.
What fault does Imanol have in everything that this Real is doing? You who coincided with him in the quarry and in the first team can express it better than anyone …
We are all very clear that both Imanol, Aperribay and Olabe have done a very good job at La Real. Imanol not only for being in the first team, but for everything he did while at Sanse. Jokin for all the years he has been in the presidency, for how he took the club and how it is now; and Olabe for the turn he gave everything when he arrived. Everyone is doing a great job, and a solid foundation is being built for a very hopeful future. It is nice to belong to this project, and that things work when everything is as complicated as now.
And what does Oyarzabal ask of the new year?
Being in the situation we are in, with such a complicated year, I ask that things start to get better and everything will soon return more or less to normal. And above all I ask for your health, because at least I have realized that we have many things that perhaps we do not value. It is clear that everyone will be waiting to read that things go well for us in sport, but I really feel that the priority is really that things go well in terms of health, for us and our family members. For all.
Is it difficult for you to ask for a title to the new year because of everything that is happening?
Of course I want it too. Of course not. And we will fight to the end for it, because we are there. But this situation has helped me to realize that there are many more important things besides football. Now the first thing is that. And when the time comes to get a title, I will fight it to the death, of course, of that you have no doubts.
Would winning the Cup, or perhaps the Super Cup beforehand, in this difficult context would it be more special thinking of all those people who see Real as an escape route?
Yes of course. It is clear that football often serves to escape their problems for many people. We know that and that's why playing too, to give happiness to our fans in the midst of so many problems. Therefore, winning a title in such a year would be something much more special still, because it would make many people happier.
Has it ever crossed your mind that the arrival of the vaccine could definitely make it possible for there to be an audience in that postponed Cup final?
There is so many laps and so many variations on the theme of the final that I no longer know if it is good or bad to be deluded that there will be fans in the final, because until two weeks or so before the final nothing will be known. It is clear that we want there to be fans in the stands, and the vaccine can help that arrive earlier, but the best thing is to wait, because whoever decides will do it for the benefit of all.
Let me ask you a personal question. At only 23 years old, how is he able to assimilate so naturally everything that is happening to him with so much noise around him?
It is my way of being and acting before things. Each one has a personality, and I am like that, and have always been like that. And I am not going to change now because I am playing football in the elite. I know that it is part of all this, within football there is another part of the rumors that some of us like less and others more. When you get into this world you know what there is, that there is a part of football that is business, and the sooner you learn to live with it, the better.