MADRID, 11 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national coach Luis de la Fuente celebrated this Monday that after last Friday’s good game against Georgia they are managing to consolidate “an important team” and laying “solid foundations” for what they want, and insisted on “leaving time and peace of mind” to the team. young Lamine Yamal.
“Each situation is unique, you have to evaluate many things. I am still convinced that in that game against Scotland we had to do that (vary the team a lot) and it didn’t go well, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be done in the future. We are very happy with the way things are now, we are consolidating an important team and laying solid foundations,” De la Fuente said at a press conference.
The Riojan coach “blindly trusts all the players because they are all top” and that is why he is “very calm because anyone can play” in his quest to “form a solid, united team in capital letters.” In this sense, asked if Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams will be starters, he admitted that he is “clear about the structure of the team, with some small doubts.” “I know if they are going to play, but I can’t say,” he concluded.
And regarding the 16-year-old young man, De la Fuente acknowledged that he has integrated quickly because “it is very easy” to do so in the national team where “the veterans give all kinds of facilities” and also because “he is a happy boy.” “Now we have to give him time and peace of mind to develop that potential because he is very young and will have his saw-like peaks. When he has them down, let’s not be cruel and see it as a normal process of his development,” he warned.
Thus, he stressed that in the national team they “always” give “priority to the athlete’s health” and that they will control well not to ‘burn’ the FC Barcelona winger. “What happens is that in football you have to take risks and you have to live with injuries, which also help you become a better person and a better athlete. That’s why you have to be patient with Lamine, there will be moments when he can come and others in those who don’t, but it will always be thinking about the good of the footballer,” De la Fuente stated in this regard.
Asked about Rodri Hernández, he recalled that when he took office he already knew that he had as midfielders “two of the best in the world” such as the Manchester City footballer and Martín Zubimendi. “I reaffirm myself. Rodri is at a level that is the best in the world and Zubimendi, for me, is one of the best and gives me full guarantees. I always try to put the best in, but I am not going to make a mistake with them,” he claimed.
“The goalkeeper is one of the team and changing him is something that I see completely naturally. Unai has had fantastic behavior, he was almost the one who made us champions of the League of Nations, sometimes we have a fragile memory. These are circumstances of the game, “but he gave a pass that ended in Nico Williams’ goal. You always look more at a detail of the goalkeeper, but we have to be fair. There is no debate in the goal, we are totally calm with Unai and his teammates,” replied Simón when questioned about Unai. , which was not entirely correct in Georgia’s goal.
“IN GEORGIA YOU WON BECAUSE THEY DID NOT STOP INSISTING FROM 1 TO 90”
The coach referred to Ferran Torres, whom he called for the first time to replace one of the injured players and whom he has known “for many years” and whom he has seen “his evolution and maturity.” “He has gone through difficult times, he has found himself again and he needs a boost like that to get back to what he was before because he is a very important footballer for Spanish football. He is not going to waste this opportunity,” he expressed.
This Tuesday they face Cyprus, a rival that 25 years ago wrote one of the most painful pages of the ‘Roja’ by defeating them 3-2 and causing the end of Javier Clemente as coach. The one from Haro did not expressly speak about that day, but he did warn about the “process” so that these types of things do not happen and that they involve “facing the game with concentration and intensity.”
“In Georgia you don’t win because they were a lesser team but because this team from minute one to the end doesn’t stop insisting and when you have that attitude and there is a real difference between one and the other it is reflected on the scoreboard. But when No, there is a problem, because football is the only sport in which being clearly superior, creating chances and having 90 percent of possession can lead to losing. That is why there is no confidence and we have to approach the Cyprus match as if it were a final,” he said.