José Alberto lavished praise on his players after the match against Sporting, in which Málaga deserved much more than that final draw that came in the final minutes thanks to a great goal from Ramón. He conceded two goals in two strange actions (an involuntary and fortuitous penalty from Kevin and a cross-kick from Kravets) and, despite being on the ropes twice, he had arrests to generate chances and equal the score twice.
Assessment of the meeting: “People will leave happy with what they have seen and very unhappy with the result. We have done absolutely everything to win. We have to make perfect matches. An action with a player in the area we have to defend it better and we take penalties and then in a circumstantial play, in a center, they score us and the feeling we had at half-time was of losing in a very unfair way. With 1-2 we had the feeling that we could draw at any time. I have seen a super intense team with and without the ball and generating a lot of football. I have seen Malaga that I want to see every Sunday. This team is the one I want to see. There are always things to improve and I am annoyed because I think that today we have lost two points ”.
Starting point regarding the game ?: “Today we have recovered our weapons and we have had very high-level bullets on the bench. The five who have entered have contributed. The team has returned to what we were in many moments of the season. We have had soccer, superiority to generate things. Without the ball we have been intense and Sporting in the first half passed two or three times from their own field. We have done everything to win and after 2-2 we saw that the team wanted victory. I have told the players: this is the way. I’m sure that when Málaga hired me in the summer it was to see this and this is what we want every Sunday, at home and away from home ”.
Febas and Vadillo: “Febas had to enter without warming up due to some discomfort from Juande that we did not know and you can see the 45 minutes he has done, at a very high level. He is a dynamic player, very vertical, he has football, he always wants the ball and he has played a very good 45 minutes. We have also seen what Álvaro (Vadillo) is. Imbalance, overflow, last pass, arrival … He comes from a year and a half without competing or without playing. These two weeks are going to be very useful for us to refresh concepts and for the adaptation of new players ”.
Juande annoyances: “It has not been a relapse of what I had, it has been some muscular discomfort in another area and awaiting the evaluation of the doctor. He thought he could continue but he tells us that it seems that they can limit him and we decided not to take any risk and do that variant ”.
Arbitration: “I don’t like to talk about arbitrations. In the end, what I do know is that in an attack by us we end up with a player with a card and in a quick action by our goalkeeper, we end up with a card. In a very intense game but without any bad gesture he ends up with 11 yellow cards. That is what I can say, then I have not seen penalties and I understand that if they have used VAR it is because both of them have been penalties ”.
Double pivot Febas – Ramón and Escassi central: “It is an option, but we have to find a balance. We were behind on the scoreboard and we had to take risks. Escassi is a player who can adapt to the position of center-back, he gives you the ball out, he has played many games in his career as a center-back and he is a player with good performance as a center-back. I’m very happy with the game and with the second half. I am very happy with Ramón’s game and his goal, because it is something we insist on a lot with him and he completes the game he did, spectacular ”.
Hopeful: “Playing like this, we are going to miss very few points. This has to be the way. If we don’t succeed, like today, people leave happy and proud of the team. That is what we want, to be an intense, dominating team that when it loses it tries to recover quickly and attack again. We have been that. We have seen a team that I love, I see myself reflected in it and that is what we all want. It is not easy to get ideas quickly, sometimes it takes a process. We have spent a month and a half with weaknesses, with many injured players, playing with discomfort, adapting to positions that are not theirs … Now we are recovering. The field has flourished and so have we ”.