Diego Simeone has thanked his ‘perfect’ Atletico Madrid players for their 4-0 victory over Real Madrid in La Liga on Saturday.
Los Colchoneros emphatically claimed bragging rights in the Madrid derby at the Vicente Calderon, leaving Tiago to commend his Coach’s influence after the game, but the Argentine insists none of his side’s feats would be possible without the players’ contribution.
“I understand that the players are most important,” he told reporters.
“The execution was perfect. We attacked well down the right and Tiago and Gabi both defended well. Koke suffered a bad injury, but Saul [Niguez] was brilliant.
“It may have been Siqueira‘s best game. He regularly tracked back, grabbed an assist, played with depth and knew when to push on.
“He’s a decent guy and works hard for his place. He’s shown signs of improvement, and it’s already happened with [Antoine] Griezmann.
“I have to thank the players. We played very well, we were both serious and compelling [in our approach], and it’s appreciated. It was nice to hear that the fans were proud of the players.
“It wouldn’t be fair if I spoke about our opponents’ [performance]. We did what we did in training.
“Every Coach has lots of ideas, the difference is who can execute them, and I have a group who play how I want them to. Without them, none of this would be possible.
“We’ll go game by game, otherwise it’ll do us no good. I just think about how many chances we had.
“We always hoped to be strong in midfield. We dispossessed Madrid many times, stopped their counterattacks and attacked down the right because we had one extra man [on that side].
“We seek to combine our play more and play with more speed. It wasn’t easy to leave out Raul [Jimenez, Saul or [Jesus] Gamez, but the team come first. I realised we needed to play quickly.
“Saul did very well, he’s important for the future. I’ve always wanted him to stay, but he must be patient. We need his youth and enthusiasm, but also his patience.
“[My team] played better than me. The most difficult thing in a team is [allocating game] time. The group can change but they never break.
“This group are never satisfied, and I don’t know who to pick. They train how they play.”
