Quique S. Flores: 'Beating Barcelona is difficult, but not impossible'
'Guardiola’s team is a world benchmark”
Quique Sánchez Flores isn’t surrendering before the battle and knows that his squad will be facing one of the best sides in the world on Saturday: Barcelona. But he believes that they can earn a positive result. The ‘rojiblanco’ manager acknowledged that “we have to understand Barcelona’s play and from there, use our weapons. They’re a world benchmark. They have a perfectly directed and acted script. Football has an unpredictable part and we’re grabbing a hold of that. Each match that we play, we think that nothing has been decided yet. Both teams have lots of quality. It’s the same script as always: to try to win. It’s going to be tough, but not impossible.”
The ‘rojiblanco’ manager continued to analyse the play of his opponent and said that “Barcelona has had the same style for many years. Now they’ve improved and perfected it. It’s an idea that comes from way back. It’s acted out perfectly by artists with the ball. We’re facing an opponent that will make things difficult for us, but we have our resources. We’ve done very complicated things before and we ant to repeat on Saturday.”
After a poor run of results, Quique believes that Barcelona’s pitch could be a good stage to change the path of the team and stated that “it’s a complicated game, but we’re obligated to play as well as possible. Pessimistic and optimistic atmospheres don’t change matches. We’re trying to distance ourselves from everything that surrounds the team. We want to create a fortress that keeps out any access.
“When it’s time to plan out a game, I think of the best way to slow down the positive aspects of the opponent. Regarding that basis, there could be changes in the side. But I always think about the possible substitutions in order to try and improve aspects of the squad’s play,” he assured.
Concerning the current mental state of the ‘rojiblanco’ squad, Quique was clear and opined that “football is a mental state and we’re very aware that we’re on a difficult crossing. We’ve accepted the crisis. We’re far from our goal, but conscious of that, and we’re going to pull like beasts to try and fight back. We owe it to our supporters. We’re going to lean on persistence and hard work. We’re in a spot for tough and demanding minds ready for pain and suffering.”
The Atleti head coach doesn’t want to think about benefitting Real Madrid in the event of winning the game. He believes that “all ‘rojiblancos’ want to win the match. Right now, there can’t be any other kind of mentality. We have quite enough on our plate trying to change a difficult, complicated season.
“I’m not going to uncover Barcelona during a press conference. They’re the best side in the world. We’re going to try and control all of the positive aspects of our play. If the squad comes out with maximum focus from the start, we can do things well, and if not, it’s going to be very difficult. We already beat them last season, but this is a team with three Golden Balls and six silver balls,” he highlighted.
To finish, the manager wanted to explain that Barcelona “have few weak points. You have to split hairs to find them. We have to play a very good game and make Barcelona play more uncomfortably than usual. If we arrive at those terms, we can good a good result.”
The ‘rojiblanco’ manager continued to analyse the play of his opponent and said that “Barcelona has had the same style for many years. Now they’ve improved and perfected it. It’s an idea that comes from way back. It’s acted out perfectly by artists with the ball. We’re facing an opponent that will make things difficult for us, but we have our resources. We’ve done very complicated things before and we ant to repeat on Saturday.”
After a poor run of results, Quique believes that Barcelona’s pitch could be a good stage to change the path of the team and stated that “it’s a complicated game, but we’re obligated to play as well as possible. Pessimistic and optimistic atmospheres don’t change matches. We’re trying to distance ourselves from everything that surrounds the team. We want to create a fortress that keeps out any access.
“When it’s time to plan out a game, I think of the best way to slow down the positive aspects of the opponent. Regarding that basis, there could be changes in the side. But I always think about the possible substitutions in order to try and improve aspects of the squad’s play,” he assured.
Concerning the current mental state of the ‘rojiblanco’ squad, Quique was clear and opined that “football is a mental state and we’re very aware that we’re on a difficult crossing. We’ve accepted the crisis. We’re far from our goal, but conscious of that, and we’re going to pull like beasts to try and fight back. We owe it to our supporters. We’re going to lean on persistence and hard work. We’re in a spot for tough and demanding minds ready for pain and suffering.”
The Atleti head coach doesn’t want to think about benefitting Real Madrid in the event of winning the game. He believes that “all ‘rojiblancos’ want to win the match. Right now, there can’t be any other kind of mentality. We have quite enough on our plate trying to change a difficult, complicated season.
“I’m not going to uncover Barcelona during a press conference. They’re the best side in the world. We’re going to try and control all of the positive aspects of our play. If the squad comes out with maximum focus from the start, we can do things well, and if not, it’s going to be very difficult. We already beat them last season, but this is a team with three Golden Balls and six silver balls,” he highlighted.
To finish, the manager wanted to explain that Barcelona “have few weak points. You have to split hairs to find them. We have to play a very good game and make Barcelona play more uncomfortably than usual. If we arrive at those terms, we can good a good result.”