Atlético de Madrid manager Diego Pablo Simeone has said that the Atlético fans "are right" to whistle his players for the 1-1 draw they achieved this Saturday against Elche CF at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano during Matchday 2 of LaLiga EA Sports, despite giving "everything to win the match" in the opinion of 'Cholo' himself.
In a press conference, Simeone was asked what he would say to the disgruntled fans: "They're right. We're just like them because we gave everything we could to win the game, but we couldn't. We're working hard to continue exploiting the very good qualities of the players we have."
"I have no doubt that with calmness, patience, hard work, and the pursuit of continued improvement, the results, which are what matters, will be ours. And we can't stray from this because we played two matches that we deserved to at least not lose," he argued.
"We made a mistake on their goal because it was our mistake. The team attacked the entire match, looking for them, trying, but of course, at the end of the match, when they were more defensive, it was more difficult than at the beginning because they were more open. We're left with a bad taste in our mouths," said 'Cholo'.
In this regard, the Argentine coach reflected on the poor start to the league season. "We have a point, we have two games in which I'm taking advantage of the team's improvement, and we have a lot of young players that we need to incorporate so that they grow every day. I think that from the Espanyol game to today's, there was a growth in the match; we played even better than we did against Espanyol," he opined.
"It's clear that the result, which is what matters most to me and to all of us, isn't there, but we need to keep working, being patient, continuing to pursue the paths we forged throughout much of today's match. And of course, when we show our strength, which is key in this, we'll get more points," predicted 'Cholo'.
For this reason, he advocated "above all" for "forcefulness," something that "comes naturally at times and is hampered at others." "If we look back at all the scoring opportunities in the match, there were several important ones with good opportunities to solve," he emphasized.
"The good thing is that we're not talking about how we didn't attack, how the team collapsed, how the team wasn't a protagonist, how the team didn't press high, how the team didn't create play... Well, it's clear that we drew, that we're not happy, that we had to win, but we're on the path we have to take," Simeone emphasized.
He was then asked how to improve that desired decisiveness. "With time, with patience, with continuing to insist on the path we have to work towards. Today, the truth is that they didn't have any scoring chances, they handled the counterattack well; we could have handled it better, but they handled it well and took advantage of that counterattack to score against us," said the Atletico coach.
"After what we talked about, I think the team is on the path of wanting to improve, of wanting to grow. For our part, we have to be patient and obviously push them so that little by little the team grows, improves, and we can get the points, which is obviously what we need," Simeone concluded in the press conference from his home stadium.
