Garcia: Critics want to hurt Atleti

Raul Garcia believes the critics of Atletico Madrid’s style of play are simply looking for ways to unsettle the champions.

Atletico have routinely had to deal with accusations they are a ‘violent’ team because of their physical approach, while there has been criticism of the team’s reliance on scoring from set-piece situations.

A Mario Mandzukic goal was enough to beat Getafe on Sunday, the strike coming after Cosmin Contra’s team failed to deal with a dead ball.

It was a bad tempered game in which Alexis was sent off for striking Mandzukic and Juan Rodriguez appeared to stamp on the goal scorer in the ensuing melee.

Garcia said after the match that to castigate Atletico for profiting from set-pieces is easier for their critics than to put in the time to be as good in those situations as they are.

“Goals from set-pieces? It’s what’s done around the world. If you complain about something that works…it’s better to learn than criticise,” he said, Marca reports.

“We’re clear on how we operate, how we do things. We’re still well and we’re winning games.

“If we were violent we wouldn’t end matches with 11 players as we always do. We know we’re a team of high intensity, we win matches that way, but people have to find a way to destabilise us.

“The important thing is the team won. It’s not easy and each win costs a lot. We know that to win titles you have to win all kinds of games and we were very focused here.”

Tags Raul Garcia
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