Fran Escribá: 'We know that Kun Agüero is always a decisive player'
The coach acknowledged that the team dropped its level in the second half
Fran Escribá acknowledged that the play of the ‘rojiblanco’ side waned a bit in the second half and explained that “we had chances and played well in the first 45 minutes. After the break, we lost control of the match, although Deportivo didn’t create chances. The game plan was drawn up by Quique.”
The Atlético de Madrid head assistant coach also analysed the substitutions made and assured that “it will be one of the subjects we address during the week. It’s true that after Fran, Mario and Diego came on we re-took control of the game, although without really playing well. The feeling is that we were in our opponents half for longer and created chances after these players came on.”
With respect to the performance of Sergio Agüero, the coach stated that “Kun is always decisive. But we like to lean on the group. Kun is great and will be even greater if he works within the collective idea. What’s more, one of the problems that we had in the second half is that we played less as a group. Our attack was too individualized in detriment to the group play.
“Quique is pleased. We all had a bad week. This victory removes the bad taste of the days that we went through, but it’s true that the faces in the dressing room were different,” he pointed out.
Regarding the play displayed by Fran Mérida, Escribá assured that “we believe that his best position is tucked in behind the strikers. The problem is that we don’t have many wingers, and Simão and Reyes have played lots of minutes, and at times he has to play on the outside. If you asked him, he’d tell you that he feels more comfortable behind the forwards. We’re using him on the wing and I’d even say that we’ll use him a lot more in that position.”
To finish, he broke down this coming Thursday’s Europa League match-up against Bayer Leverkusen, and the team’s chances of passing through to the next round. “I think that we have possibilities of passing through. We had qualification for the next round in our hands and we let it slip away. We’re going there with all the confidence that we can win, although logically we don’t depend on ourselves. The only thing going through our heads is winning. We’d feel really badly if Rosenborg did us a favour and we didn’t take advantage of it,” Escribá concluded.
The Atlético de Madrid head assistant coach also analysed the substitutions made and assured that “it will be one of the subjects we address during the week. It’s true that after Fran, Mario and Diego came on we re-took control of the game, although without really playing well. The feeling is that we were in our opponents half for longer and created chances after these players came on.”
With respect to the performance of Sergio Agüero, the coach stated that “Kun is always decisive. But we like to lean on the group. Kun is great and will be even greater if he works within the collective idea. What’s more, one of the problems that we had in the second half is that we played less as a group. Our attack was too individualized in detriment to the group play.
“Quique is pleased. We all had a bad week. This victory removes the bad taste of the days that we went through, but it’s true that the faces in the dressing room were different,” he pointed out.
Regarding the play displayed by Fran Mérida, Escribá assured that “we believe that his best position is tucked in behind the strikers. The problem is that we don’t have many wingers, and Simão and Reyes have played lots of minutes, and at times he has to play on the outside. If you asked him, he’d tell you that he feels more comfortable behind the forwards. We’re using him on the wing and I’d even say that we’ll use him a lot more in that position.”
To finish, he broke down this coming Thursday’s Europa League match-up against Bayer Leverkusen, and the team’s chances of passing through to the next round. “I think that we have possibilities of passing through. We had qualification for the next round in our hands and we let it slip away. We’re going there with all the confidence that we can win, although logically we don’t depend on ourselves. The only thing going through our heads is winning. We’d feel really badly if Rosenborg did us a favour and we didn’t take advantage of it,” Escribá concluded.