The coach of Atlético de Madrid, Diego Pablo Simeone, was happy that Saúl Ñíguez was able to score again, in this case to give the team the victory against Villarreal (1-2), since he has always maintained “humility and respect” despite not having as many minutes, and has highlighted that when you have “a group that is committed” and that thinks “about the common goal” they are “better.”
“Saúl is a boy who has always maintained his spirit to work. He has never complained, he has always maintained humility and respect in the place in which he has had to accompany and help the club and the team. He has played a lot in passages of the season, now he is playing less but I always have his ability in mind,” he declared at a press conference.
In addition, he recalled the goalscoring aspect of the midfielder from Elche. “Today he brought out things that we were used to. Saúl was a man who scored goals, like Marcos, who has to return to that goal line because we need goals from the midfielders,” he said.
In this sense, he was also satisfied that the changes are so decisive. “When you have a group that is committed, that helps you think about the common goal, we are better. Today they came in very well and that gave vitality to the team to get closer to winning the game,” he stressed.
On the other hand, the Argentine coach analyzed the match at the Estadio de la Cerámica. “Athletic had lost, we had the possibility of recovering, if we won, that place that we love so much. We needed to play a serious, strong game, the boys interpreted it very well. The changes revitalized our midfield and attack and that allowed us to come out of the state we were in by the 15th or 20th minute of the first half,” he said.
“We started winning the game, we couldn’t finish counterattacks with which we could have solved it much better to distance ourselves on the scoreboard. We played against a team that plays well and that had options, that could have made it 2-1 earlier due to a mistake on our part , but we were fortunate that it didn’t happen. Then Saúl scored a great goal,” he noted.
With this victory, Atlético puts an end to a disastrous streak of results away from home, which had aroused criticism in the rojiblanco environment. “We are in a place where we only have to win the game, because if we don’t win everything generates opinion and criticism. Today I am left with the satisfaction that Savic came on very well in the second half; that Azpilicueta is always present to give you what the team needs; Marcos gave us a little more exit with spaces; Saúl came in very well scoring the goal; and Saúl and Morata gave a step of greater aggressiveness to the pressure and our attack,” he indicated.
In another vein, ‘Cholo’ highlighted the importance of having scored again from a set piece after a long time. “I’m very happy to be able to score a goal from a set piece again. At one time, every set piece was a smell of a goal, and in recent times we couldn’t do it,” he said.
Finally, Simeone explained that the change of Roro Riquelme after the break was made to have “more aggressiveness on the left side.” “They threw an enormous number of centers at us from that place. We understood that with Lino we could control it better, and support ourselves with Savic as another central defender to give the middle one more player to play. We sought to put Llorente in the middle with Koke, with Correa and Morata up,” he concluded.