Diego Simeone has admitted that he is enjoying his “annoying” Atletico Madrid ahead of Saturday’s match against Espanyol in La Liga.
Los Colchoneros have won their last three games, a run which has seen them move to second in the table and qualify from their Champions League group, and the Coach believes his side’s philosophy of frustrating teams is paying dividends.
“Except Jackson [Martinez], everyone’s available,” he said at a Press conference.
“We’ll wait to see how the boys from Wednesday are, and from there we’ll work with the team’s formation.
“The team defended well as a unit [against Galatsaray], it wasn’t only the back four.
“We’ve never changed [in that sense] of being a strong team, a good unit and teamwork demanded from everyone.
“We’re meeting our objective and expectations of being an annoying team, who ask a lot of their opponents and are annoying to play against.
“The most difficult thing is to keep winning. It seems easy as we have good players, but it’s not always the case.
“The sports management are doing a great job and so are players who have been working with us for years.
“Espanyol work well as a team. [Felipe] Caicedo is doing well and [Marco] Asensio wants to hurt [opponents] every time he has the ball.
“They’re two players I’ve always liked. [Asensio] looks up whenever he has the ball. He’s dangerous.
“The team are intense in their approach and create chances. All we need to do now is have more precision in front of goal.
“We’ve improved our pressing game with three in the middle. More was asked of us before, when we played 4-4-2, but with [Yannick] Carrasco [on the wing], he gives us strength in attack and we recover the ball better.
“The three in the middle read the game and retrieve the ball better [than the two in the past].
“I’ve decided the team [for Espanyol], but we must see how the lads are [until then].
“I think we’re improving game by game, but we know we can improve further and the objective is to improve while looking at ourselves, not other teams.”
