Tribal Football

Espanyol coach Gonzalez: Worst performance of season

Espanyol coach Gonzalez: Worst performance of season
Espanyol coach Gonzalez: Worst performance of seasonLaLiga
Espanyol coach Manolo Gonzalez admits their 4-1 defeat at Athletic Bilbao was their worst performance of the season.

Espanyol were hammered as Inaki Williams, Alex Berenguer and Dani Vivian scored for Athletic, with Oscar Trejo netting a late consolation for the hosts. Afterwards, Gonzalez didn't seek excuses.

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Upset with the team's performance?

“We weren't good. Our opponents were better. It's very difficult to score on a pitch like this and in circumstances like this, even more so. I'm annoyed, the approach didn't work out well. The first goal left us very hurt, we didn't press well, the opponent had a lot of ease in playing, they turned us around constantly and we weren't good. We have to be self-critical and pick ourselves up for the next game.”

 

Worst game of the season?

“The first half against Valladolid and today were the worst games. We had a hard time getting into the game. When we found Véliz we had the team very far apart. The opening goal hurt us a lot.”

 

Aspects to correct and improve?

“We are self-critical and today's situation really bothers us. We have to correct, fix things and improve so that it doesn't happen again. I'm bothered by the sensations and the first half wasn't good.”

 

Thinking about the match against Sevilla?

“I don’t think this will hurt us. I think the team will come out on top and compete well. This has to serve to make us realise where we are. If we don’t give our all, we won’t be able to. We have to avoid that. We haven’t been good. To compete and win, we have to give our best every week.”

 

What was said at half-time?  

“I told them that we had to get into the game and not let ourselves go. We started well, but they scored another goal. In the end we ended up standing up for ourselves and not giving up on the game. They beat us today because they were better and we had a very bad day.”

 

A question of attitude?

“You can't always focus on attitude. I think it was a question of positioning and play, which we tried to correct at half-time. We have to push to improve on Friday.”

 

Bad results away from home?

“In the First Division you can't give half a part away to anyone. And even less so in a stadium like this."