Marcelino: “We weren’t good enough tonight”

Athletic Club manager Marcelino García Toral admitted his team “didn’t play well enough” and made “mistakes that they shouldn’t make” during their 1-2 defeat against Rayo Vallecano at San Mamés.

The Lions initially overturned Rayo’s early lead, but Radamel Falcao came off the bench to score a header in the 95th minute.

“We didn’t have our best day,” Marcelino said during his post-match press conference. “In pretty much every aspect, we were below the level we demonstrated in the previous five games.

“The defeat isn’t undeserved, but a draw would have been fairer. They took advantage of our mistakes.”

Marcelino rotated the starting XI heavily ahead Tuesday’s night clash, but the head coach does not believe this is the main factor behind the defeat.

He said: “I’m going to look for solutions, not for things to blame. From my point of view, the reason we lost today is not because of the changes.

“We want to involve as many players as possible. We felt we had to make these changes based on what those players have shown in competition and training. We took these decisions based on analysis.”

Athletic’s five match unbeaten start has come to an end, but Marcelino said it will not cause a huge dip in confidence, saying: “I don’t think we’re going to lose our enthusiasm. If we continue in the same vein as the first few games we can be very competitive.”