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Marcelino: “Athletic’s duty is to compete for every match”

Marcelino: “Athletic’s duty is to compete for every match”

Marcelino García Toral spoke ahead of Monday night’s clash with Sevilla, saying he expects a tight game against difficult opposition

Athletic Club manager Marcelino stressed the Lions must not let their level drop, regardless of what stage of the season they are playing in.

Los Rojiblancos are heading back down to Andalusia where they face LaLiga Santander title dark horses Sevilla FC on Monday night at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuan (21:00 CEST).

“Sevilla are a physically strong team that want the ball and have a lot of quality,” Marcelino said about Athletic’s upcoming opponents at his pre-match press conference.

“They’re very direct and a very complete side. It will be difficult and even more so at their ground.

“All that being said, we’re determined to play a great game, to be solid and be competitive. We’ll do everything we can to win.

“Our duty, and this is what we are doing, is to compete for every match.”

With five fixtures remaining and the Lions seven points off European places, the Gaffer is convinced Athletic performances since his arrival in January have warranted more points.

He said: “We’ve lost points that perhaps we deserved to get. The draws have punished us in that respect. The team’s only lost three matches and has racked up so many draws, it makes you angry.

“If we’d managed to convert some of those draws into wins, we’d be in the fight for Europe right now.

“Out of all of those matches, we’ve only been able to keep a clean sheet four times and that has lost us points. It’s something we have to work on.”

Marcelino acknowledged that the busy schedule since his arrival has not allowed for much time on the training ground, and admitted there is still a lot of work to do until the team is fully comfortable with his style of play.

“We’ve played so many matches and we’ve had a lot of weeks with three fixtures,” he added.

“We need time to reinforce many concepts. The team identifies with this approach and that’s what we plan to do, to reinforce it.