Simeone attended Diario Olé during the international break to commemorate the 25th birthday of the Argentine newspaper. If in the advance offered yesterday the Cholo He confessed to having called Suárez to find out about Messi’s situation and the possibility of incorporating him to Atlético, the full interview has been published today.
The Atlético coach explains his day to day in charge. “In the morning, before training, we meet for Zoom, to review what we are going to do, because we practice at 11. Afterwards, we stay talking to see the task for the next day, what we are going to prepare. And in the meantime We call each other a thousand times with Hernán (Bonvicini) and with Nelson (Vivas) because things are appearing. I always tell them when the week starts that we are going to play in one way, but when I close the team, it is almost certainly not the same as on Monday. That is a bit of what we are and how we are finding the best solutions. We are reviewing, looking, observing, either the rival or your team. Sometimes, in the first images, you don’t end up finding the little details that will make you improve, you find it by repeating them. If we play with Liverpool, for example, maybe you will find how to hurt him in the eighth game that you watch ”.
El Cholo also reviews his legacy and period in the rojiblanco club. “We were always of one thought, although we did not think of Miguel Muñoz, Real Madrid coach who spent 14 years. The only thing I’m looking for is to be able to see what I like, to feel identified with the footballers who do what I want on the field. And I don’t care what we play, if it’s a friendly, the King’s Cup, the Champions League final, the Europa League … We have to compete. Because tomorrow in the newspaper and in the world will come Atlético de Madrid and the result. What matters is not who played, but whether Atlético de Madrid won or lost. It is the first information. He won or lost. It is what we try to convey with deeds and not with words. Show that each training session is a search to improve, to demand, to be on top of the player, so that he does not feel that we have been here for ten years. So that he feels that if we lose four games, they can kick us out. “
An Atlético that continues to improve, but still has a way to go. “The growth of the club has been enormous. And consequently the search for more growth continues to be within our project, not only in football. It has a fantastic stadium, but we need a sports center of ours, which is still on loan today. We have few courts to train, two courts, so imagine… they are two courts that can be seen from the outside on a daily basis. I always say that we train for all of Spain. We put tarps, but it looks the same, because everything is transparent with the sun, do you understand? Today we have a much larger changing room than the one we started with: the Prof managed to make two real gyms, very complete, full of tools for the boys. We were also able to have a stable breakfast for the footballers every morning with the possibility of them having lunch there as well, conditions that previously did not exist ”.
Simeone also values the growth in its workforce. “Based on the work and team successes, there was a general construction in which the club, little by little, was able to give us more possibilities. Before, with all due respect, we had 11 or 12 players in our eye. Today you look at the squad and every training you do is a headache because there are a lot of very important boys left out. We generated all this from the opportunity we gave the club to better sell the product and the great management capacity that Miguel Ángel Gil and Cerezo have. But we still have a lot to do ”.
A number of great players that make their lineups difficult. “When we won the 2014 League we had on the team Juanfran, Miranda, Godín, there was Alderweirled, Arda, Tiago, we had Sosa, Raúl García, Koke, Villa, Cebolla Rodríguez, Diego Ribas … Possibly fewer names, but very good footballers because if not, you won’t be a champion. But the only thing that puts everyone in the right place is the field, because the field does not lie. We have to seek, from the leadership, that they understand that what the field shows is what we follow. Talking to each one, telling them, explaining to them, I don’t like it, because you will always end up lying at some point. We play Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday … If I have to go every day telling everyone, this one is going to play for this, because I imagine the game that way … I was a player and no matter how much you tell me what you tell me, I want to play. It’s your problem. Don’t tell me stories to justify what you’re doing. And it can even be interpreted that I justify why I do it. You have to make sure that the group understands that I want to win, I don’t care about anything other than winning and that I have no commitment to anyone ”.
An increase in the demands of Atlético until they are among the greatest. “I always say it: you go to Bayern and you have no other option but to win, you go to City, Barcelona and Madrid today, the same. And why not at Atlético de Madrid? If you are not prepared to compete like this, leave the place to someone else. The indispensable thing is neither the coach nor the players. The indispensable thing is the club. You have to understand that. But how do you prepare to always win? In comfort, no. Comfort for when you stop playing, or go to another place where anything can happen. We want to grow in the demand and we are the first to demand ourselves, because those who demand ourselves are players. And that’s why we change. Now we realized that the 4-4-2 was monotonous, that we did not surprise our rivals, that for ours it was heavy and we are in a 5-3-2, 4-3-3, 5-4-1, looking for the return ”.
Winning is the most important thing, but also the work to achieve it. “I take pride in all the work, whether we have won or lost. We arrived in the Champions League finals to the minute and to penalties. I am proud, but I wanted to win. We are all in this controversy of whether it is more important to play well or win and there I say: “Don’t lie to yourself.” You are going to play the final of the world and you do not care if you play well or badly. You want to win before you play well and lose. The controversy is generated by those who like it and have a derogatory thought for those of us who work differently. Is there a team that has been champion that plays badly? It’s hard. Now, can he have a playstyle that doesn’t quite convince you? Yes. France came out as world champion folded back and playing backlash. Instead, Spain came out champion playing well. But by how much did the important games win at the World Cups? 1-0, 2-1, on penalties … I mean, the distances are minimal. Then, you have to get out of the space in which we end up lying to each other. I want to play well and win. But the day my players don’t have a good game, you need a plan B. Usually championships are won when you win games that you don’t deserve to win. In ten Copa América games or a World Cup, you can’t have ten bad games because if you don’t, you won’t get there, but That game that got complicated and you played badly, you have to win it too because if you don’t, you won’t pass ”.
On that, Simeone goes back to talking about his defensive label. “It is that I cannot define myself, I do not know tomorrow what squad I am going to have. In 2014 we played one way and last season another, with three center-backs, high lanes, two defenders, nothing more. Carrasco is offensive, Trippier too, Llorente we discovered him and strengthened him as a midfielder with a goal, Lemar was left for dead, he could not get out of his ostracism and the bad moment of two previous years, and we found him a place … SUárez seemed to have been expelled from Barcelona and broke it, Joao and Correa shared that place to give him vitality, and we won a championship by going 30 dates first, which is very difficult. Luckily God was on our side this time. Imagine the last game, that Madrid beat Villarreal on the hour and we, who had to win yes or yes, drew or lost against Valladolid … Imagine that label if Madrid was champion, after going for the first 30 dates … ”.
El Cholo also thinks about the thorn of the Champions League. “The Champions League is very difficult, that is. Very difficult. How can I explain it … I don’t know what example to set because it can be harmful. You see it at City that is preparing by putting millions to win the Champions League and still could not win it. You see Liverpool, PSG, who do not know what to do to generate a group of extraordinary footballers, you see United who have been very well empowered, and you say … (makes the difficult gesture). And I’m forgetting about Dortmund (…) Although I think the leagues are even more difficult. They have more merit because it is the regularity championship, and that is only given by the league because there are 38 dates ”.
Simeone also talks about the liberation of Messi with the Copa América beyond the phone call to test him. “I have no doubts that this situation he had got out of him, that I won a thousand Champions, I won a thousand leagues, I have 200 million goals, I have the Ballon d’Or and I couldn’t win with Argentina! It was incredible, but sometimes life ends up giving you things a little later and well, you have to accept it as it is. What I have always valued about him is that he never gave up, that he never tried from his place of protagonist to get angry with the world, to say I’m not going anymore, I’m walking away. He went there, there, there, there, and it’s like life, in the end pounding, pounding, pounding, one day he falls ”.
