Simeone: "To seriously compete you need a group"

Atlético’s coach commented about the injured and suspended for this game that, "everybody knows Koke and Arda. They bring to the team creativity, talent, and fit very well in the team’s system, with the possibility of having variables with them in the field to play differently, beyond what they’ve always contributed to the team football-wise. These absences added to Raúl García’s generates a group effort to counteract the important absences and value what I always say: to compete in the best way, you don’t need a team. A team is useful to win a match. But to seriously compete you need a group and the people who are working are doing it to take advantage of the opportunities when they appear and hopefully tomorrow goes well."

Regarding the fact of having been able to work all week without any matches, he pointed out that, "I don’t stop to wonder if having more time to work will ensure something more or less. Sometimes, when one has a lot of time to work, they can work badly and, therefore, it doesn’t play in your favour. They matches are very far apart and footballers like to play. What is clear is that the team has been working well and we hope to be able to respond to a difficult game."

Whether if Torres, Mandžukić and Griezmann will play together, the coach said, "let's see how Celta is positioned to see the place that each one has to take. We can play 4-3-1-2, 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1, 4-4-2. We have the variables because Griezmann can play in the wing, as he did in the Real Sociedad or also here. 4-3-2-1, with Mandžukić and Griezmann as two and Torres as one, with Torres on the right... We will see the positions they take and we will thus move."