He spoke at Montilivi on Sunday.
Atlético Madrid ended 2025 with a win as they beat Girona 3-0 at Montilivi on Sunday afternoon, and coach Diego Simeone was clearly elated with the performance as he spoke after the game.
The coach underlined the importance of one partnership on the field above all, as he spoke about Marc Pubill and Dávid Hancko.
“Marc, above all, makes me very happy with his development because that’s life, sometimes you work and work and don’t see the benefit of your work,” Simeone said. “When he arrived, he came as a full-back, we told him that we saw him more as a centre-back or stopper than a full-back, which he can also clearly do, so we focused on that and worked toward it.”
Simeone added that Pubill “has had the opportunity to work a lot in that position in recent months, I saw him and I see situations where he can do it in that position, he clearly needs to improve in different situations in his position, but he has speed, strength, aggression, good footwork, good aerial play and plays well when pressing with his back to goal.”
Simeone also praised his defensive partner in saying that Hancko “has the speed needed in the centre of the team, they are both doing very well and the truth is that they are playing because they deserve it.”
Diego Simeone on controlling the match and the role of substitutions
“I think substitutions always help us to take this step and try to control the match. It’s not easy because the opposition also plays in a 3-0 match. At 1-0, we had Oblak’s great save, which was a foul by Koke first, a foul where I thought a foot hit Koke in the head first. And then, in the save he made at 2-0, Oblak again. The opponents play and it’s always difficult to control the entire game, obviously.”
Diego Simeone on the team improving
“I think what needs to be highlighted is that the progress has been from less to more, on the rise; hopefully we can sustain it. It won’t be easy, because obviously our opponents at home and away are competitive and we will have to keep trying to maintain this level.”
Diego Simeone on Alexander Sørloth’s importance to the team
“Alex, as I’ve always said, is a very important player for us. Possibly in recent times he feels much more involved and more important. Not that he wasn’t before, but he now feels more involved and more important. And you can see that because he runs, breaks, presses, gives us game situations that, as I’ve been telling you, are different from those that Antoine, Julián or Raspadori give us.”
Diego Simeone on room for improvement and high pressing
“We always have room for improvement. We have to keep improving, adjusting situations that the team needs and asks for. We’re pressing well in the opponent’s half, but that also creates danger. Their transitions on the counterattack weren’t easy to handle. It was resolved more by an individual effort than a collective one. It’s not easy to press high up the pitch, and we’ll have to adjust if we want to continue playing this way, which means that sometimes we’ll play like this and other times we’ll retreat, which you don’t like.”
Diego Simeone on the year of 2025
“It’s kind of in between, because it was half of last year, last season ended and now we’re halfway through this season. I think last season we competed very well in the Champions League, but in LaLiga we lacked that push of forcefulness and conviction to know that, to get where we want to be, 100 percent is not enough. I’m convinced, every time I see Real Madrid and Barcelona play badly, that 100 percent isn’t enough for different reasons and we have to give 110, 120 percent. We couldn’t do that and we’re stuck in the position we’ve been in lately, from the start of this period at the end of December, which is halfway through the season; as I always say, we’re in the middle. The team came out of a difficult place at the start of the season, where obviously we didn’t see what we wanted to see. You critics, us wanting to improve, the players wanting to evolve; luckily, the work, the faith, the conviction, the confidence, knowing what we want gave us the peace of mind to continue on the path we are on and that will take us back to where (we can compete), 100 percent is not enough.”
Category: General Sports
