Quique S. Flores: “We want to play a good game and maintain our Champions goal”
“Mallorca is very competitive and likes to play at the Calderón”
Quique Sánchez Flores appeared at his pre-game press conference before taking on Real Mallorca SAD to speak about the current issues at Atlético de Madrid at the start of a crucial week for the organization, in which the squad is going to face Mallorca in La Liga at the Calderón, as well as Sporting at El Molinón, and in between those fixtures will receive Real Madrid to finish up the Copa del Rey quarterfinals.
The first matter about which he was asked was the injury to Agüero, which he found out about after Saturday’s training. “I’ve always said that during the season things have come up that have caught us off guard and this is one of them. It was a bit unexpected and comes at a difficult time. It’s never good for Kun to drop out of the line-up and now it’s come again at a horrible time for us and he’ll be out around ten days.”
Regarding whether this setback is a triple death blow, especially for the Cup derby, the manager stated that “I’d like to focus on the fixture against Mallorca because we need to bring back positive feelings that we can carry into Thursday’s encounter. We’re very focused on Monday’s match. We want to turn around the recent results and continue to chase our Champions goal, as well as play a good game for our supporters, who haven’t been feeling good about the last two matches. They expect a lot from us and we want to give them reason to believe because we’ll need their support and we have to be more united than ever right now if we want to play well.”
Concerning whether Agüero’s absence might affect the team, Quique Sánchez Flores stated that “I’ll always defend my squad in the most difficult situations. When things get the toughest is when I have the most faith in my players and the group knows that. We’ve trained as hard as we can for Monday’s match and we want that faith to be transmitted to the fan. We have to maintain that union with the supporters that we had last year. Kun’s out 10 days. We don’t want anyone to get injured, and when it happens we feel that other players get an opportunity. We can’t depend on one player, no matter how good he is. The things that this squad has won have been as a group.”
When questioned about Monday’s match-up, he had words of praise for his opponent. “Mallorca is a great team, a competitive team, and they play good football. They’ve shown that in the past, and are doing so again this year. They’re a tough team. I haven’t forgotten about last year, when Mallorca scratched out a point at the Vicente Calderón with 9 men. We know that we’ll come up against a motivated team that likes to play at the Calderón and that is level on points with us and wants to qualify for European play. We want to show that many positive things have happened in the last year and that we’ve changed.”
He was asked about what solutions he has in mind to make up for the absence of Kun and replied that “now we have the team that we have, with a rearmed squad and with Elías and Juanfran part of the group. Therefore, we have good options to replace him. We’ll try to think up a game plan that we believe in.”
Filipe Luis had stated at his press conference on Saturday that he had a tough time sleeping after Thursday’s loss. “Getting our positive state of mind back is important. This team has fallen and picked itself back up stronger than when it fell. I don’t like it to happen during the season. Last year we didn’t tire of repeating that the team would grow and we’re closer to doing that than last year. We’re only two or three games away from our goal. If we had 32 or 33 points instead of 27 we’d be talking about fighting for third place. We have to keep chasing our goal and we won’t know what our situation is until we face our most direct rivals.”
Quique Sánchez Flores highlighted that he’s in a good state of mind. “I feel strong personally because each time that the team gets hit I also get hit myself, and these situations have made me very strong. My mind is clear in these types of situations because I look at myself and I’ve always accomplished goals at every team I’ve coached. I’ve gone through these situations and gotten through them. The only thing that I ask for is the union with the fans, who support the players and the players give them the stimuli. Respecting us is fundamental to us achieving goals, and our objectives are at an arm’s reach; they’re not that far.”
The first matter about which he was asked was the injury to Agüero, which he found out about after Saturday’s training. “I’ve always said that during the season things have come up that have caught us off guard and this is one of them. It was a bit unexpected and comes at a difficult time. It’s never good for Kun to drop out of the line-up and now it’s come again at a horrible time for us and he’ll be out around ten days.”
Regarding whether this setback is a triple death blow, especially for the Cup derby, the manager stated that “I’d like to focus on the fixture against Mallorca because we need to bring back positive feelings that we can carry into Thursday’s encounter. We’re very focused on Monday’s match. We want to turn around the recent results and continue to chase our Champions goal, as well as play a good game for our supporters, who haven’t been feeling good about the last two matches. They expect a lot from us and we want to give them reason to believe because we’ll need their support and we have to be more united than ever right now if we want to play well.”
Concerning whether Agüero’s absence might affect the team, Quique Sánchez Flores stated that “I’ll always defend my squad in the most difficult situations. When things get the toughest is when I have the most faith in my players and the group knows that. We’ve trained as hard as we can for Monday’s match and we want that faith to be transmitted to the fan. We have to maintain that union with the supporters that we had last year. Kun’s out 10 days. We don’t want anyone to get injured, and when it happens we feel that other players get an opportunity. We can’t depend on one player, no matter how good he is. The things that this squad has won have been as a group.”
When questioned about Monday’s match-up, he had words of praise for his opponent. “Mallorca is a great team, a competitive team, and they play good football. They’ve shown that in the past, and are doing so again this year. They’re a tough team. I haven’t forgotten about last year, when Mallorca scratched out a point at the Vicente Calderón with 9 men. We know that we’ll come up against a motivated team that likes to play at the Calderón and that is level on points with us and wants to qualify for European play. We want to show that many positive things have happened in the last year and that we’ve changed.”
He was asked about what solutions he has in mind to make up for the absence of Kun and replied that “now we have the team that we have, with a rearmed squad and with Elías and Juanfran part of the group. Therefore, we have good options to replace him. We’ll try to think up a game plan that we believe in.”
Filipe Luis had stated at his press conference on Saturday that he had a tough time sleeping after Thursday’s loss. “Getting our positive state of mind back is important. This team has fallen and picked itself back up stronger than when it fell. I don’t like it to happen during the season. Last year we didn’t tire of repeating that the team would grow and we’re closer to doing that than last year. We’re only two or three games away from our goal. If we had 32 or 33 points instead of 27 we’d be talking about fighting for third place. We have to keep chasing our goal and we won’t know what our situation is until we face our most direct rivals.”
Quique Sánchez Flores highlighted that he’s in a good state of mind. “I feel strong personally because each time that the team gets hit I also get hit myself, and these situations have made me very strong. My mind is clear in these types of situations because I look at myself and I’ve always accomplished goals at every team I’ve coached. I’ve gone through these situations and gotten through them. The only thing that I ask for is the union with the fans, who support the players and the players give them the stimuli. Respecting us is fundamental to us achieving goals, and our objectives are at an arm’s reach; they’re not that far.”
