The Atlético players, hurt by the loss to Athletic de Bilbao
Reyes: “We have to try and be the team we were at the beginning”
The ‘rojiblanco’ players were defeated after the loss, but looked to the future with the goal of putting themselves back together. Tiago and Reyes were the players in charge of speaking to the press in the mixed zone and agreed that the team has to come together to move forward a situation that has become complicated with the consecutive defeats to Sporting and Athletic.
José Antonio Reyes commented after the match that “when things like the sending off happen, you end up looking like an idiot. The referee is the one who decides, but I don’t know if it was enough to send off Perea. There are lots of things that have happened in these last few weeks that are affecting the team. We have to try and forget everything and get back to being the team that we were at the beginning. We need to have confidence, we’re in a rut but you come out of situations like these as a group and with confidence.”
The winger from Seville also mentioned that “it was a game and a day to forget. We’ve been forgetting for a week. It can be fixed, of course. What we need is to gain confidence and for the team to start winning so that things can be fixed. You can’t fix it by losing. There are plenty of games left and lots of points at stake. We’re going to have faith in accomplishing our goal. Going to Camp Nou is never good, whether you’re doing well or not.”
Tiago appealed to the union of the group to move forward. He doesn’t believe that it was a penalty and thinks that that play marked the development of the match. “Llorente fell really easily; I don’t think that it was a penalty. You can’t be calm when you don’t win, calmness is achieved when you win games. We’re in a poor situation in which we don’t want to be, but we have to fight. These are bad matches, it’s a bad spell. Football isn’t coming out of us, everything is happening to us on the pitch, we’re not scoring goals, we’re conceding silly goals… We have to battle until the final moment and keep strange things from happening to us, because when you play with ten men at home against a squad such as Athletic, which is a good side, it’s tough.”
With respect to the blow received by the fans, the Portuguese midfielder said that “they suffer as much, or more, than we do. Feeling the unease of the supporters is no fun. The lack of confidence hurt us. When you see that things aren’t going your way and you’re unable to win, it affects your confidence. When you lack confidence in the squad, the players have to give a little more, have pride and fight in the next match. The team has to show face right now, as everything is very difficult. Now we have an extremely difficult fixture against Barcelona, but there’s nothing left for us to do but to battle.”
To finish, he gave his full support to Forlán. “He’s our leading goal-scorer and if he doesn’t have the support of the fans, it’s really tough. We need him.”
José Antonio Reyes commented after the match that “when things like the sending off happen, you end up looking like an idiot. The referee is the one who decides, but I don’t know if it was enough to send off Perea. There are lots of things that have happened in these last few weeks that are affecting the team. We have to try and forget everything and get back to being the team that we were at the beginning. We need to have confidence, we’re in a rut but you come out of situations like these as a group and with confidence.”
The winger from Seville also mentioned that “it was a game and a day to forget. We’ve been forgetting for a week. It can be fixed, of course. What we need is to gain confidence and for the team to start winning so that things can be fixed. You can’t fix it by losing. There are plenty of games left and lots of points at stake. We’re going to have faith in accomplishing our goal. Going to Camp Nou is never good, whether you’re doing well or not.”
Tiago appealed to the union of the group to move forward. He doesn’t believe that it was a penalty and thinks that that play marked the development of the match. “Llorente fell really easily; I don’t think that it was a penalty. You can’t be calm when you don’t win, calmness is achieved when you win games. We’re in a poor situation in which we don’t want to be, but we have to fight. These are bad matches, it’s a bad spell. Football isn’t coming out of us, everything is happening to us on the pitch, we’re not scoring goals, we’re conceding silly goals… We have to battle until the final moment and keep strange things from happening to us, because when you play with ten men at home against a squad such as Athletic, which is a good side, it’s tough.”
With respect to the blow received by the fans, the Portuguese midfielder said that “they suffer as much, or more, than we do. Feeling the unease of the supporters is no fun. The lack of confidence hurt us. When you see that things aren’t going your way and you’re unable to win, it affects your confidence. When you lack confidence in the squad, the players have to give a little more, have pride and fight in the next match. The team has to show face right now, as everything is very difficult. Now we have an extremely difficult fixture against Barcelona, but there’s nothing left for us to do but to battle.”
To finish, he gave his full support to Forlán. “He’s our leading goal-scorer and if he doesn’t have the support of the fans, it’s really tough. We need him.”
