MADRID, 1 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Sevilla, Jorge Sampaoli, stressed that this Wednesday’s duel against English Manchester City in the Champions League, despite the fact that there is nothing at stake, is good “to consolidate an idea”, and that they cannot face it in an “improvised” way and thinking more about the league derby against Betis because it would be “a lack of respect” for themselves and for the competition.
“It’s a day to consolidate an idea because I think the team still hasn’t had regularity in that collective unit that allows you to get out of an uncomfortable situation. We’ve been here for almost three weeks and we’ve had few training sessions and many games, and we have to see how to accommodate a difficult situation from the collective commitment, but not in the short term but in the development of the matches”, Sampaoli commented in a press conference collected by the Sevilla website.
The Sevilla coach warned that when “the team doesn’t hold on in one way and gets disorderly and exposed, with such non-stop matches, performance drops.” “It happens to all teams, but in the situation we are in, it makes you pay, and there is also a physical, emotional wear and a parallel obligation that makes you uncomfortable and that makes a loss of performance. Fix that in three or two days without training it is very complicated”, aimed.
The Argentine acknowledged “the possibility of some players playing to replace others who have more minutes” and that he must “weigh many things added to the great obligation” of the derby against Betis next Sunday and the European duel “against one of the World’s greatest”.
In this sense, he indicated that he is “consistent” and that he knows that “today there are places on the field that have no replacement,” which complicates his management of minutes and even causes “unnatural players to play in those positions.” because there currently isn’t.
“We find ourselves with an imbalance in some places on the field that we have to solve, but it wouldn’t be normal to come to play against the best in the world as if the game didn’t exist. We will talk about this game if the team does poorly and we come to play against a very important team that can give us the opportunity to continue growing in this difficult stage for the club”, he added.
For this reason, Casilda’s man has thought of both the Etihad duel and the Benito Villamarín duel. “We have planned two parallel games that allow us, within the possibilities of the squad, to put players that allow us to play a good game against City and with things clear for the next game,” he said.
“The functioning of the team today is not ideal and we hope that this match will be a breakthrough like it was in Dortmund or in other matches, with important connections. We don’t have training sessions and we have to work in the matches so as not to reach Sunday with the same insecurities,” added Sampaoli.
He praised Pep Guardiola for achieving “a very important difference against anyone” with Manchester City despite the fact that he has not achieved success in the Champions League, which “is a very special tournament, at times, which did not coincide with those of City” . “It is superior to all the teams in England, but football has these things. Sometimes it causes you that the best teams do not reach long-term situations in these knockout games. I value long-term success much more and throughout Guardiola’s time They have shown a regularity that no team in the world has”, he stressed.
“We know the difference between one team and another, we have to be aware of that and minimize them, but we also have to know that it is real that it is a very important game for us and a possible boost for the group, although with the conditioning that you can’t come here to play an impromptu game because it would be disrespectful to us and to the tournament. It’s not just another game, but a Champions League game and it’s very important”, declared the Sevilla coach.
