MADRID, 23 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Atlético de Madrid, Diego Pablo Simeone, advocated this Saturday for “defending better”, despite winning 1-0 against Sevilla FC in a postponed match on matchday 4 of LaLiga EA Sports, and that ” It is the step we have ahead of us” to work on as soon as 2024 begins.
“We have only one path, which is game by game, and we will not get out of that. Obviously we always look for the best, we have to continue working in the same way and improve in some things. The team grows and grows, continually seeking to be a protagonist” 'Cholo' Simeone analyzed in the press conference after that meeting at the Cívitas Metropolitano.
“In the first half we wanted to manage the game, we couldn't enter the end of the play because they were very closed. We had some with Morata, with Lino, with Molina, etc.; but hey, the team is doing well in that process. We need defend better, it is the step we have ahead of us and we will work there,” the mattress coach warned.
In addition, Simeone highlighted the “five games in a row with a lot of effort” that his pupils had faced in recent weeks. “Of which we had to win three, draw one and lose one, of which two we played with one less. I think that today better than the other day we were able to respond to that situation of playing with one less and win an important game,” he alluded. the Argentine coach to what he experienced against Getafe.
“It's been a very good year from December to December, where we played 50 games and lost only eight, winning if I'm not mistaken 34; and with a large number of goals as well, there are 104, I think. We have had a very good annual year, and Now comes the second stage, which we must continue to fulfill,” said Simeone about the great red and white performance in 2023.
On the other hand, he praised the performance of Marcos Llorente. “We have a lot of footballers like what Marcos shows. And that's why we create a good team, that's why we compete well. The other day I already said that in our team those footballers who have effort as raw material, have a place,” Simeone commented. .
In this sense, he was pleased to reincorporate key players. “Reinildo's entry makes us very happy, the truth is that he was waiting for him for a long time. He suffered for not being able to enter, we suffered for not finding the time to give him that place and today the hug and the songs in the locker room were very nice of the entire team with Reinildo; and above all his work in the game, which he did well,” he noted.
Meanwhile, he downplayed the expulsion of Caglar Söyüncü after stepping on Lucas Ocampos' ankle from behind. “I feel partly responsible for what happened to Caglar, a boy who has a very strong physique, very tall, a physical prodigy always with the intention of wanting to anticipate.”
“We have not given him the time so that he can play and be in the rhythm of continuous football, beyond the fact that he trains very well, that he works, but the games are not the same as the training sessions. Part of the expulsion is our responsibility for not having given him given the minutes so that he feels better and can play better with that 'timing' that you have when you play; when you don't play, it is more difficult,” Simeone concluded.