Garitano: “We are very clear about what we want to do”
Garitano: “We are very clear about what we want to do”
Shortly before Athletic Club gets back to competition, the manager from Derio expressed that “there’s no greater motivation than defending your hometown team”
Gaizka Garitano appeared before the press in the press conference room at Lezama this morning. He answered there the questions the media asked him via digital telecommunications on the eve of the day when LaLiga will resume for the lions.
Athletic Club will face Atlético de Madrid tomorrow (2:00 pm) at San Mamés. They are “one of the best teams in the world”, according to Gaizka. “We’ve given this match a lot of thought and we’re very clear about what we want to do on the pitch. Our team have prepared well for it and we’ll be playing to win”, the red-and-white manager explained.
Garitano underlines the importance of the “total concentration” that will be required during the different stages of the game: “We must take the stops in the game into consideration, whether they are to drink water or make substitutions. In the second half, there won’t be too many actual minutes to play, so we have to acclimate well to avoid lacking focus every time the game is resumed.”
The manager from Derio also gave his view on the uncertainty faced by the teams in LaLiga under these particular conditions now that the competition is back: “We are coming back under completely unusual circumstances, without having played any friendlies and having trained very little together. There are no excuses because all sides are in our same position. We need to be able to adapt ourselves to any difficulty day in day out, since the pace will be hard to follow. The batteries of our squad must be fully-charged at all times, as it is highly likely they will all have to play if matches are scheduled every three days.”
Finally, Gaizka spoke about his lads’ motivation in the face of the adverse circumstances: “I cannot think of a greater incentive in the world of football that having the opportunity to represent your town and your team, counting on local players, wearing Athletic’s shirt, defending our way of doing things. In all the years I’ve been part of this world, I’ve never seen anything like this in any team from any country.”