Simeone: I don’t know any other way of playing that doesn’t involve competing by Heath Chesters | Posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2015 Diego Simeone was pleased with the performance of all his players, having consigned Real Madrid to a 2-0 defeat in the first-leg of they Copa del Rey encounter at the Vicente Calderón, underlining the strength of his team is their level of competitiveness, regardless of the competition or opponents. “My evaluation is that this was always a tough game, with our rivals making a better start than we did.” Began the Atlético Madrid manager at his post-match press conference, following the 2-0 first-leg victory over city rivals Real Madrid, particularly pleased with the efforts of his players because, “We made a lot of changes to our team and the lads responded very well. I’m very happy with the contribution of Lucas, who is a very young lad. I’m very pleased with Mario [Suárez], who hasn’t played much and the presence of Fernando [Torres] which excites us all.” Continuing his analysis over the game, Simeone offered his view of how the game went, explaining, “I think as the first-half went on we settled better, started to be more competitive and closer to playing the sort of game we had to play. I think the second-half was very good, we were a complete team, organised, hard-working. The changes gave us some vitality, particularly to our play. That permitted us to score and to occupy the spaces so we could defend well.” Real Madrid defender Marcelo took the defeat poorly and suggested that Atlético Madrid only know how to play long-ball football, to which Simeone gave the curt response, “It’s a respectable opinion. I understand it.” “Our idea was that they would play their best players. Our rival played a very competitive team.” Simeone suggested when asked about the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the Real Madrid starting eleven and regarding whether the game went as he’d expected, the Argentine felt, “in one part of the game we understood we could be more patient with our pressure, then in the other part we understood we had to pressure higher upfield, down their left and right. The consequence of that worked very well. I think the team pressured very well upfield, particularly in the first half with Griezmann and Torres. Saúl interpreted things well when he got forward and when he had to get back. Raúl García did a commendable job on the right flank.” What pleases Simeone the most about the rotations he made in the game, is the level of competitiveness amongst the players in his squad, stressing that this is the key ingredient, when it comes to being competitive against any and all rivals. “I don’t know any other way of playing other that doesn’t involve competing. To compete against opponents, you have to compete within the squad. The physios and ‘El Profe’ do a great job to ensure that everyone is alert and ready to play. To ensure we stay in all three competitions, we need everyone in the group. With just twelve players we can’t compete, so we need the twenty or twenty-one we have, with the arrival of Cani.” Underlining his point, Simeone added, “Whether we’re playing friendlies, Copa del Rey, Champions League or in La Liga, we try to compete with the best of our strengths, conveying to the fans of Atlético Madrid, what it means to play for Atlético Madrid.” “We have an important game on Sunday [at Barcelona in La Liga], so the truth is we’re taking a pause.” Simeone responded, when asked about plans for the second-leg at the Bernabéu, even with their two-goal advantage. He wouldn’t stray from his one game at a time approach however, noting, “From next Monday, then we’ll start looking at the best way to handle that game in the cup again.” Regarding the debút of Fernando Torres, Simeone felt, “He transmitted excitement, energy, he’s strong, he’s powerful and he’s fast. Obviously he’ll need a logical amount of time to coordinate with his team-mates and how to read our game, understanding how and when we pressure opponents. As he plays more minutes I think he’ll understand that better.” As for the capture of Cani on loan from Villarreal, that was announced on Wednesday, Simeone was of the opinion, “He’s a player who has talent, a player who can add something more than we have with Koke, Arda Turan and Griezmann. That will obviously allow us variants and to compete as we want to.”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 03:25:24 +0000
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