“I feel that I am qualified to lead any team”

Marcelino García Toral (55 years old, Careñes, Villaviciosa) lavishes smiles, is very correct, passionate about football, and likes to expand. Above all, he argues to convince. The Athletic coach has lived on a wheel of emotions since he arrived in Bilbao. As soon as he landed, he won the Super Cup against Madrid and Barça, and the team's meteoric game rose like foam. But in April he lost two Cup finals and the balloon has started to burst …

We are in the era of interviews by Teams, Zoom, Skype … do you prefer not to see us or are you more interested in looking the interlocutor in the eye?

I prefer to be with whom I speak, I say it as I feel. Human relationships have to be face to face and not through a screen, but hey, let's hope this ends as soon as possible.

From Caparrós it was not possible to interview the Athletic coach, and that was ten years ago. We return to normality.

So I understand it, I have nothing to hide, or hide from anything, or from anyone. The relationship between all parties is a good thing to benefit this beautiful show. And convey what you think I do not think it harms anyone. On the contrary, it benefits what football is, relationships and exposing the way of thinking.

Define yourself as a person and as a coach.

It is difficult to define yourself! I always try to be an absolutely normal guy. In personal relationships, sincere, because sincerity is a great virtue and what encourages good relationships between people, and dialogue. And in a professional field, I like seriousness, rigor, and humility, of course, which is a value that we must always keep in mind. I try to transmit coherence so that the players trust our way of acting.

I spoke with former teammates from his time as a player, the Ceballos, De Huerta, Eloy… and the technician Lico. They see him now as obsessive and passionate as before. Eloy had to slow him down so he wouldn't squeeze the Sporting owner so much!

Yes, I am the same. As for professionalism in what I like, yes. Well, now I'm more of a winner than a player. As a footballer when I was younger I lacked the character that I now have, the ambition… it was, as is often the case with boys, a bit 'excusable', you improve that as you get older. Now you see everything else from maturity. Also when I started training it was different from now on certain criteria. But when it comes to the starting point where you like football and how you develop it, I am the same.

Don't tell me you were as excited about that promotion with Loyalty to Segunda B 23 years ago as the Cup with Valencia!

Yes, because the important thing is to enjoy every moment you live and each one of those moments was spectacular, just as it was to win a Super Cup with Athletic and it would have been to lift a Cup here. It is true that had he won the Cup, he would have missed something that makes him different: the presence of people in the stands, living with the fans and fully enjoying the victory.

Do you see yourself as a consecrated technician, with prestige?

I feel internally that I am qualified for any challenge and to lead any team. We have a career with many achievements, which are once the titles and another the objectives that you achieve based on what you have proposed or what is considered as the team's ability. Our trajectory is long and there were more successes than disappointments.

He does not see anything uncomfortable in this training, although some colleagues consider it almost torture. Even physically, some like Guardiola or Zidane are wasting away and are already without hair, and while you continue as usual and with that great hair.

When we choose a profession, we must know its pros and cons and assume them as such. Since the assimilation of that general concept that encompasses the coach, I enjoy much more than I suffer. Years go by and defeats make me have a hard time, but that should not weaken me, nor do negative reviews, nor do positive ones strengthen me. I am prudent, calm, serene, so that what happens around me does not condition my way of acting.

What do people say to you on the street? Is that episode from 2008 forgotten? Are you following the path of Raúl García and Iñigo Martínez, who had to win the affection of Bilbao?

I cannot perceive that fact. Things are forgotten. I am very grateful to the behavior that people have with me in Bilbao since my arrival. And look, losing the Cup could be a great disappointment, but the expressions of affection and the words that people transmit to me are very appreciated. The only thing that makes me, if possible, is to have more motivation to try not to disappoint them.

There were many smiles and hugs at the beginning with the Super Cup, but lately I have noticed him more harsh and critical. Are the jokes over?

It is not critical. I am a coach, and I consider myself as a person, that I like to think about what I have seen. I express what I feel: if it is joy, joy and if it is sadness, I try not to express it but to explain why the game we wanted did not come out. In many cases in Athletic I have an opposite feeling. The players do a great job that leaves me very satisfied, but then, for small details, all that effort and the fact of being superior to the rival, we did not transform it into victory. That makes us not win, something that always bothers me. I am annoyed by many draws that we achieved in which the team made merits to win, but specific details prevented us from doing so. And that annoys me, but not only for me, for everyone, for the effort of the players.

Three finals in three months. If you win them, it goes down in history, but it has not been like that. Are you worried that the Marcelino 'effect' is waning?

No. If you trust the idea and work methodology, we will go for the better. We performed at a high level in the Super Cup because our best players were very good, they all performed at the same time, they had a perfect mood and it was a short four-day tour. Protected by that victory and a very, very meritorious title, the team grew.

And then what happened?

Two circumstances arose. You dispute a year later due to the pandemic, a final that generates great illusion, but at the same time an obligation and an anxiety. And at the same time, there is a possibility of playing another final. You add all that up mentally and playing a game every three days, with a new coaching staff … generates a situation of maximum competitive stress and little work. That led us to irregularity. A lot of things came together to divide the attention on. In the subconscious, the League took a back seat. And then there is the thing about not being lucky in certain games. And the expected night arrives …

The day D. La Cartuja. The real.

Once we watched the game, all that stress took a big toll on us and the illusion turned into a fear of losing that left us without the performance that I am convinced these footballers have. It was a shame that will last in our minds, that of the coaches and the footballers, until we are older.

He says it bores him to have 80 percent possession if there are no goals. It is more of Klopp than of that Selection that Del Bosque directed.

This must be qualified. You make a sentence and it becomes decontextualized, a headline is drawn. I want to have 80 percent possession, but there you have to shoot 20 or 30 times on goal, not three clear chances and ten shots on goal. Until proven otherwise, in football you have two goals, one that you must defend and the other to attack, and the greatest ecstasy that a hobby feels is first when you score a goal and second when you make a scoring chance, not when you hit. passes. Our fans do not coexist with that idea and neither do many other teams in which I was. Possession to have completion, if you do not have it, football is very boring and that Selection had very little. Barça was very different from Guardiola in the first three seasons. I'm more of watching Bayern from last season, Dortmund. Klopp's Liverpool … those teams that play forward, finish, establish a frantic pace, recover, counterattack, circulate the ball to generate spaces for progression to finish … that's the football that makes me fall in love.

They can be the judges of the League. They beat Atlético, they crossed out Sevilla… it's time to 'annoy' Madrid.

We want to compete, we don't have to look at who we play against. We will be a powerful team when we are able to visualize ourselves and achieve, regardless of who we play against, against Ibiza in the Cup or Madrid in the League, try to give our best version. When we are able to repeatedly repeat that mentality, we will be a very competitive team. We have to play against Madrid and our mentality, as against Huesca or in the next game against Elche, is going to be trying to win. But we do not consider ourselves judges of anything, we want to win by ourselves and the League will be won by the one who has added the most points. Everything is even. Adding Atlético all the points will be less than in the last ten years.

Do you like Zidane?

As a player he was extraordinary, and as a coach he is the best that Madrid can have, so the results say: he won the Champions League and Leagues. And this season with many difficulties, especially in terms of injuries, he is the second favorite to win the League with two days left. In Europe it was the Spanish team that went the furthest, so the season must be good. Man, if Madrid or Barça runs out of titles, it will be considered that it has not been a success. As a coach he is the ideal and so the results say.