NEWS | 16/03/2019
“We finished stronger than we started out and that means we're looking good physically”, added the Real Madrid coach.“We struggled a bit in the first half but the last ten minutes we did push higher up. The second half was a big improvement. We made some alterations at the break and then looked much better. I liked how often we got in shooting positions and we put in 20 crosses, when you have that many, you up your chances of scoring, which is what we did”.
Return to the dugout
“I felt great. Nothing much has changed but I always feel at home here. I've been involved in almost every area of the club and I feel fantastic. There's a great atmosphere and all I'm thinking about is finishing the season on a high. It wasn't perfect today but there were lots of positives".
"We'd only had three training sessions and now we've got two weeks to work with the players, speak to them and put what we've worked on in training into practice. I hope the next game is better than today's”.
Everything will get better if the players enjoy themselves.
"The team talk has to be simple, but to the point. That’s what happened. We did some good things and will have to work on small adjustments. There are a lot who are going away with the national teams and others who are staying. The most important thing is to work hard these two weeks and get that good feeling back and enjoy playing football. If the players have fun everything will be better. We created a lot of danger and I’m very happy with that".
Team fitness
"The players who are here know that what I like is to play good football and so do they. The fitness side is important too and I saw a team in good shape because we started badly and finished well. Starting poorly was a case of the changes we made and it then got better. When you don’t have the ball you have to run to get it back and we have seen good things in terms of pressing after losing the ball".
Surprises in the eleven
"Nobody is going to take away what they have done here. I have a squad of 25 players and I will use everyone. Courtois and Reguilón have done well so far. Keylor is very good and so are Marcelo, Isco and Bale. They looked good to me, Isco got a goal. I will count on them all because they have shown positive things. The complicated aspect for a coach is that I will need everyone and sometimes there are players who are left out".
The goalkeeper
"Today Keylor played and Courtois is going to play too. I also have Luca. I have three very good goalkeepers and we'll see. Real Madrid needs two or three great goalkeepers and the coach will always have to make the difficult decisions. I'll count on them until the end of the season and then we'll see. Real Madrid needs at least two great goalkeepers because the season is long".
Ceballos
"I’m happy with his performance. He did a good job defensively as well. With the ball we know the quality he has. I will not talk about the past. It's fine and we're going to work in this direction".
The future
"There will be changes, but I will not be looking at these games if everyone does well in a game to see if they stay or leave".
