Simeone appeared before the media telematically on the day before face Valladolid on the 30th day of LaLiga Santander, on the day the team returned to the Wanda Metrolitano, which tomorrow is re-released in the commission, to exercise for the last time before the match.
–Rotations: “The important thing first is to win and from there look for the team that has the best chance of performing in the best way. I see the committed staff to understand that we are going to need everyone and as a consequence of that we will go day after day with who to start, with whom to repeat and understanding that, the changes, in the second half, generate another game within the same game and that is what this League that is ending is marking us a little ”.
–The competition between Morata and Costa, the two have marked, is key: “I spoke to them a week before starting LaLiga, as a result of what I understood last week and that I told them about playing together. I spoke to them and transmitted what I feel. They are very important players, each one in the time in which he can be useful to the team. They are both very engaged. We already saw him with Morata the other day, not only because of the goal but because of his predisposition to understand what the game needed. That generates strength. Hopefully we can hold it. It will depend on the coaches and the soccer players to feel it ”.
–Champions format: “I mentioned it after the match against Osasuna, the Champions League is always complex. Great teams reach the quarters and the competition will not change at all. It will be a demanding Champions League in a single match format ”.
–Return to the Metropolitan, without public: “We have spoken in due course about the circumstances that must be carried out and from these we must behave. The circumstances of today are different and we adapt to compete and to continue seeking our goal as a team and club. Life is circumstances and we cannot stop at what is. Now there are circumstances to which we must adapt, reinvent ourselves to what this society is marking us, not only us, the restaurants for example are at 50%, all the situations of the society that is marking us this moment that we are living. We are not the exception ”.
–What does he try to transmit to his players, from the band in an empty stadium. That energy that gives them the stands in a party with the public ?: “At all times I seek that, above all, that my footballers feel for me and that this generates help for them. That as a coach we can transmit something from the outside ”.
–Oblak taking the ball through the central in some plays against Osasuna: “Be Oblak, Savic, Giménez… No different play was noticed. Many times the goalkeeper generates fatigue and sometimes it is good for the center backs to hit if you are going to play long. ”
–Comparison Raúl García and Llorente: “Raúl has been a very important player in his time at Atlético. He had already played second striker once. Marcos in his life imagined being able to play as a striker … But seeing him train every day, with his strength, his forcefulness in shots, awakened the option, sharing it with him, of making an effort to find an alternative. He is a midfielder and will continue to be so and will also remain an important alternative to play there. It makes sense, we saw it the other day on the pass to Morata, but not only because of that, but because it gives vision and quality of play. It is one more alternative where it is not easy to find a balance to make the team play. It has other characteristics to Correa, João, Vitolo… Marcos gives us a different alternative and we will continue to strengthen it in some moments of the match ”.
–I imagined Llorente before in that position, when he played in Alavés, Madrid, or has been once seeing him in training: “With Marcos it happens like when Griezmann arrived, that I saw that he could play second or forward when everyone told me it was just a band. Lucas played central and was the world champion as a left back. Position in which we saw him in his first match against Madrid against Cristiano. Then it was to continue gaining confidence. When the players transmit tools to you, the coaches must be prepared to take advantage of them. And I saw that he was scoring goals, that he was scoring goals… And those opportunities must be exploited within football ”.
–Felipe: “Keep training apart from the group. He is much better with the expectation of next week to be able to get closer to having him. “
–Herrera: “Herrera showed last week:” Mister, put me” What do we need. He said it in training, not with words, but with body movements. We have him and he responded with calm, experience, vision of the game. We hope you can continue giving us that alternative midfield. We need everyone. In an end of seasons with so many games, so demanding, it is almost impossible to play with them always. We coaches must make footballers the reality. If they are all you can get there and if not it is complicated ”.
–Lodi, rest, possible spare parts: “We have already trained, eating from the preseason with Arias on the left side. Hermoso has played there, Saúl… Manu is from the position and he is young but with a promising future… We will look reading when it will be time for another teammate to replace him before playing every two, three days, which is not easy and at some point you will need to rest. ”