Ernesto Valverde accused Athletic Bilbao of “not playing with fire in our bellies at the moment” after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Deportivo La Coruna.
Los Leones succumbed to their third consecutive draw and were leapfrogged into seventh place by Espanyol as Alberto Lopo’s injury-time equaliser cancelled out Aritz Aduriz’s early strike at San Mames, and the Coach rued his side’s lack of fight.
“This match wasn’t definitive for our placing in the table, but it was significant,” he said after the game.
“Now we have to keep fighting and see what happens. [Elche and Villarreal] won’t give away points lightly, although they probably don’t have anything left to play for.
“Our performance should have been more fluid. It’s been a long season, but we must be prepared to graft. We can do much better than we did [on Saturday].
“We’re not playing with fire in our bellies at the moment. We couldn’t kill off the game on the counterattack or read Deportivo’s attacks well enough.
"They were very gung-ho and sent a lot of people forward, with almost with a frontline of six or seven players.
“We started well but, as the game wore on, we ran out of steam and they improved.”
