Simeone: “I’m lucky to have players dedicated to a cause”

Diego Pablo Simeone faces his 37th capital derby as coach of Atlético. A stratospheric record in these times when everything tends to be ephemeral. Despite the fact that his team is having an irregular start to the season and there are those who are even beginning to question his once untouchable figure, the Argentine has reason to feel proud of his long career at the head of the mattress ship and grateful to those with whom he shares the day day. “I think that time is related to the results, to the great work on the part of the club giving the possibility of having great footballers and for having very committed players. I am lucky as a coach to have had so many players and go through transitions to continue maintaining the most difficult thing, which is having players dedicated to a cause. I am lucky », he asserted in the preview of the duel that will measure his team with Real Madrid at the Metropolitano.

Cholo praised the leader, who arrives undefeated at the meeting. “The rival has an extraordinary team with young footballers who are making the transition from those who performed at a high level in these years. It is a great team that has a habit of always being close to winning. We have to take the game to where we are most interested, “said the Atlético coach, who confirmed the presence under the sticks of Jan Oblak, absent in his team’s last two games as a result of the thigh injury he suffered in San Sebastián. “Yes, he will be,” he said about the Slovenian goalkeeper.

The meeting is preceded by the controversy unleashed as a result of the dances with which Vinicius celebrates his goals and Koke’s warning to Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger. The Buenos Aires native does not want tempers to flare up more than they already are and, therefore, he avoided entering the rag. “I focus on what concerns me as a coach, on finding ways to play a good game in a derby that is always special for us and the fans, and on playing it as it concerns us from the position we have,” he said. About whether the matter has been taken from the mother, more of the same. “We live in a society in which we are all included, we are all people and it is the society we have,” he cut short.

Despite the five points that separate the two opponents in the table and the different sensations that each other transmits, an old fox like Simeone knows that these types of meetings are different and warns that anything can happen. “I always think that in big games and in derbies it is important how you arrive, but the moment the game starts it is a new story. Everything is fine until the referee starts. It’s a new movie that we don’t know the ending of, that’s why this game is so much fun,” he stressed.

Finally, he spoke about the Griezmann case, the protagonist of a good part of the spotlight on the rojiblanco side at the start of the season. “We understand that Morata and Joao are doing very well and that Griezmann is doing very well in the 30 minutes that he plays. He gives us another step, possession in attack, hierarchy and a better society in attack », he commented on the French attacker.