Pablo Guede: “This is the most important personal challenge of my career”

Pablo Guede has trained prestigious teams such as San Lorenzo de Almagro, Colo Colo or Necaxa. Is this the most exciting challenge for him? “The truth is, yes, because Malaga generates a lot. It is a lot of responsibility and it is the most important personal challenge of my career”.

First sensations after returning to Malaga. “I have seen the template very well. His disposition towards work was brilliant. From there, start growing day by day. With everything that surrounds returning to Malaga, to La Rosaleda and seeing all the changes that have been made for the better since the years I was there, I see it as wonderful. I feel satisfaction and joy. The city is spectacular as always. I am super happy”.

His arrival has changed the state of mind of Malaguismo. “I live it calmly. This generates responsibility, working harder and better every day because this is very short-lived. They are results. Try to go game by game by game and then at the end of the season we will assess. This is football.”

Feelings after talking to players in private. “They were great in training. I talked to each other and told them what I thought. You have to talk a little and work a lot in a lot of aspects to reverse the results. I saw the team well against Girona. I did not come a dead team because the boys run and work”.

Why is his signing made now and not two months ago? “Because I was working with another team and I didn’t have the option either (referring to the Mexican Necaxa).

Baggage outside Malaga. Why do you accept the challenge? “Feelings cannot be handled. If Málaga needs me right now, I can’t say no. It’s hard to explain the feeling. If Malaga calls you, you already know what I feel for this city is what matters and it’s time. I don’t choose that. If the club of your loves knocks on your door, go ahead.

What Malaga do you want to see? “The mood issue is important, but I also think that the mood happens at times. This must be reversed as quickly and in the shortest possible time. I would ask only one thing from the Malaga that I want to see and it is non-negotiable; poke, run and go all out every time you wear this jersey. Day by day and week by week take small steps to continue growing. I know there is little time. I have things very clear. I have a way of training and once the team gets what I want, I vary it because not all rivals require the same. It will depend. We’ll play a line of three or four… I like attacking football but I like organized pressure and I like having the ball”.

The academy striker Loren has trained with the first team. Missing goal. “If we have to put the responsibility of being Málaga’s top scorer on the back of a 17-year-old boy, we’re going to kill the kid. That he work, that he be calm and that he be one more. With his daily work he will say his can enter. Giving responsibility to a boy would seem very aggressive to me. The club made a great effort to retain him. I like it in all the clubs where I was, I took out many guys. But you have to know how to put them in at all times.”

Template Diagnosis. “I don’t see anything negative. Spectacular. We started and I liked the willingness of the boys to train after the game on Friday, which was fucked up. Coming with nothing after the game they did. This team is not dead, it wants to and the results have to accompany it”.

Aura of pessimism due to the proximity to relegation “I see it differently. “We are three points behind Sporting. There are other teams who would like to be in our position, that is the reality. That we are the target of those who are in relegation? Yes. I see the glass half full. It’s been several games since we’ve won. We have to look up and look out of the corner of our eyes at those who follow us. We’ll look out for ourselves to get the games going. We know very well that the more united we all are, the easier it is to they do things. We know from our own experience that when we’re all united it’s difficult for them to beat us. That’s what’s happening at the moment”.

It does not come with its coaching staff. Francis Bravo, his assistant. “A decision for the moment that touches right now. It is the best. The people of the house, who are super-skilled. He knows what this is and he has blue and white in his veins. He knows all the kids, it was not the time to come with the entire coaching staff. I know them all. Right now there is no one better than them.”

The eternal problem of the goal. “I am convinced that both defending and attacking is a team issue, the defensive does not fall on the defenders nor the offensive on the forwards. I am convinced that teams are above individuals. There are games in which it is not generated and others in which it is generated a lot and they are not capable of putting it in. It’s all very relative. You have to work on that. I have it very clear, we must also work defensively. They are small details, adjusting those small details that make you win or lose, that make you alert. I think we’re going to be able to do it.”

How and when did they contact you? “I was in Buenos Aires with my mother, who had died a year ago, my father, I was not aware of it. She did not expect it, but always with hope and the illusion intact ”.

Message to the fans. What can I say to them? La Rosaleda must be filled. May he support as he always supports in difficult times. There is no more, it is like that, we were outside and La Rosaleda was full. They were there. The message that we are going to send is that we are the people of Malaga, to support in bad times more united than ever. Then we will draw the conclusions, now more Malaga than ever, all together. All together. I have a phrase: ‘We are in a bad moment, more and better’. That is the most important. It is what excites me, I would love 28,000 it would be amazing ”.

Previous stage. “The two coaches who were before (he is referring to José Alberto and Natxo González) are very good. I am not aware of the scuffles, from here to the back I have no idea. I don’t know if it is good or bad, that will be said by the time. I think that as I saw the squad, I had to stop them, let’s go forward”.

Have you received many congratulations? “A lot of people congratulated me, I couldn’t open WhatsApp. When I have 15 or 20 minutes I will answer. On my part, I would like to thank you for fulfilling the dream of sitting here. The people from the club who hired me now and with whom I started. Juval, El Palo, Godoy (recently deceased president of the Paleño team) people I haven’t forgotten. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, thanks to all of them I can fulfill my dream. I’ll tell you tomorrow because I have a lot of messages”.

That promotion to Segunda in 1998 from his time as a player after scoring three goals against Terrassa? “It was more complicated than now. It was not up to us and we had to match another one (the Talavera in Beasain). Now it depends on us, fully on us, give me to depend on oneself. It’s up to me, I like that. Give it to me, so I can have the ball and play how I want. The season did not go as everyone expected, but there are also four teams below us, and above that we can reach “