MADRID, Sep. 12 (.) –
The coach of Atlético de Madrid, Diego Pablo Simeone, has assured that he is “the most self-critical” with his team, and has recalled that “no one remembers what you did when something new is presented”, so they must demand the maximum this season, starting with Tuesday’s game against Bayer Leverkusen on matchday two of the Champions League group stage.
“The same emotions continue to move me as when I arrived, when we were 15 points from third in the ‘Champions’. We were one step away from being able to reach the ‘Champions’. The first one who demands of myself is me, I am the most self-critical with our team. We have grown a lot, and from that growth due to the players who came season after season, the responsibility, the demand and the competition demand the best from you”, he declared at a press conference.
“I have a way of seeing life. Everything that happened, happened, nobody remembers what you did when something new is presented. The new is what matters, what positions you and what matters to all people We are always prepared for what is to come. We have an idea, looking to open our heads to continue evolving and not think about anything other than tomorrow’s game”, he added.
Regarding the evolution of the team this course, he assured that they are always “in search of a positive result” and that “it generates anxiety, rushing”. “We are working on it so that it goes behind the game. The games that have cost us the most have been Porto and Villarreal, we evolved in the game against Celta. Until minute 75-80 the team responded very well, calmly That’s why we put Cunha, so they don’t say we’re going backwards,” he said.
In another order of things, the Argentine coach warned of the danger of Bayer Leverkusen despite falling on the first day (1-0). “Against Bruges I liked the team, I thought they played a good game, with a lot of dynamic people who hurt the counterattack, with a good game in the middle of the field… They ended up losing a game in which they possibly deserved much more of what the result left,” he said.
“We imagine an orderly team, that is going to leave us the ball, that is going to try to counterattack us due to the speed that its players have from midfield forward,” he said about what he expects from the Germans.
He also spoke of two proper names in his squad: Belgian midfielder Witsel and Argentine defender Nahuel Molina. “Axel is giving us a lot of things in this new role that favors him; he has a vision of the game that few footballers have to play passes between the lines. He came to work in the middle and will be an option when Giménez and Savic cannot help us. In We will see it in the middle of the season at some point,” he stressed.
“I asked Molina, I insisted that he come, he is the footballer that I understand that Atlético needs in that position. There are always things to improve, we trust him a lot. He is 24 years old, a very good age to improve,” he said about his compatriot.
