‘Blame me for La Real struggles’

Sacked Real Sociedad Coach Jagoba Arrasate has held himself accountable for the club’s struggles this season.

The rookie trainer had big shoes to fill following the departure of Philippe Montanier to Rennes in the summer of 2003 but nonetheless led the Basques to sixth place in La Liga by the end of his first season.

However, he was replaced by David Moyes last November after a dire start to 2014-15, which saw La Real knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers by Russian side Kuban Krasnodar.

“I’m one of the main reasons for La Real’s current situation,” Arrasate told Berria.

“The objective now is to save the season and do well in the future, but La Real aren’t quite right [at the moment].

“Despite some phases of good play, there’s been no sense of consistency. [David] Moyes took over the team at a difficult time.

“What we achieved last season will be assessed over time because this season we’re already seeing that [2015] will be a very difficult year.

"In short. We noticed that in the second half of last season, the team suffered much without the ball.

“So we wanted the team to adopt another approach [for this season]. That sparked much debate and, judging by how [this season] is going, deservedly so.

“When we saw that this didn’t work, we went back to the previous system but, of course, for that we lacked [Antoine] Griezmann and another player.

“When we were eliminated in Krasnodar [in the Europa League], we lost our way. We forgot how how to play [our natural game].”

Arrasate then revealed he had received offers to return to management from overseas outfits but admitted his priority would be to stay in Spain.

“I’ve received offers from abroad but none have satisfied me [yet]. I won’t just accept whatever comes first,” he added.

“If possible, I want to stay close to home, and if I have to go down [a division] then I will.

“The sporting aspect is more important than the economic aspect in my mind, but I hope that I join a team sooner rather than later.”

Tags David Moyes Jagoba Arrasate
La Liga - Club News