Sevilla director of football Monchi has given an overview of events at the Sanchez Pizjuan this season.
In particular, he spoke about the planning at the club, its President Jose Maria del Nido and also Coach Unai Emery, who he says likes to play attacking football.
“Emery has a concept of football and 80 per cent of that is attacking values,” asserted Monchi in an interview with AS.
“He has clear ideas and sometimes we can agree on them or not. My worry was that I wasn’t convinced about them, but there are no doubts.
“In summer we were looking for a central defender to take the ball out from the back, alongside attacking full-backs and central midfielders who could keep possession of the ball.
“He could have built a team that sat back, but then that is not Unai. He thinks, and in that respect he is very similar to Juande Ramos, that it is better to win 4-3 than 1-0. The only thing I ask of a Coach is clarity of ideas and he is very clear.”
Monchi commented on Del Nido’s personal situation, given the President is currently appealing against a seven-and-a-half year jail sentence for fraud originally handed down in December 2011.
“When I see the President he is relaxed although he has his own worries. I see him talking about the future in December, January, for the last two years. We’ll give our best support to the situation but what happens will happen,” said Monchi, who went on to talk about the overhaul of the team during the summer.
“If you had told me in May that Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Gary Medel and Geoffrey Kondogbia were leaving and I could have lessened the blow, then I’d have said it would be very, very difficult.
“However, we have made more of the situation than I thought and good squads are also good at getting results. Results will tell if this idea matches the reality.
“Sevilla, Real Madrid, Chelsea or even [lowly] San Fernando would need time to adapt if 14 players had arrived and 16 had left. So much has happened since July 1. In Europe we’ve done well but we are not satisfied with our League performances.
“There are extenuating circumstances but we have to face the reality that we are not satisfied, neither with results nor our football. We were bottom of the table but I was not as worried as at other times in the past.
“If we had not beaten Almeria last weekend then whistles from the crowd would have been the least we deserved, but we will still stick our shoulders out. Our greatest virtues are the desire to get things done, the sparkle in the players’ eyes and the hunger of the squad.
“They are a close-knit group whose only defect is their inconsistency, which is something we will need to sort out. It has happened in a few games and has been blamed on a lack of competitiveness, but I put it down to a lack of playing time together.
“Hopefully we will be able to iron this out as soon as possible,” he added.
