Diego Simeone
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raskolnikov
Well-known member
Me too, better a strong liga than back to the pathetico days.
Messi983
Senior Member
Emery was rumoured to be a possible Simeone's successor if he leaves. He's a good coach but has nowhere near close the personality that El Cholo has. To be fair, I don't think any coach except for maybe Pep and Mourinho (for two years before he starts to fight with everybody in the club) has that but neither of them would come there. Emery would probably be able to keep them in top 4 but I don't think he could challenge Barça or RM for the title.
raskolnikov
Well-known member
Simeone shouldnt leave. If he goes so goes the mentality and they will drop in quality. Its annoying that epl can consider la liga and the rest a draft because of their money. It would be nice if Simeone can stay away from it and just make Atletico a great club.
Horatio
You're welcome
That's my point. I was providing supportive arguments to Atletico never being a small team.
El Flaco
Active member
Diego Simeone's interview with La Nacion
10 years as a coach, 7 trophies and a thousand of concepts: "The best coach is the one who makes a 5 rated player a 9 rated player" he warns."I'm not interested in being liked by the others, even by me", he says.
Viamonte and Reconquista. The noise from the microcenter didn't get through the windows. It all started in a room of the hotel Amerian. It was Nelson Vivas' room, and about 25 people were inside amongst the silence. "I wanted you all together, i thought that doing it in other way you couldn't get the whole of my idea" remembers the Cholo itself 10 years later. His players are in front of him, 2 weeks before also his teammates of in troubles Racing (Club of Avellaneda). The first technical speech will be something Cholo always remembers. Not the first match, a "Clásico" in the Cilindro (Independiente's stadium) where Independiente won with 2 goals of a little lad called Agüero. The first 6 games of his coach career, Simeone went through them without a win. He doubted? "No. I was truly convinced to myself. I asked some friends and they said me 'don't take it, you're a fool'. And that's what convinced me entirely. One himself has to be himself, don't let you go with the mass' opinion. Convictions are more important than everything, and i was convinced that there was enough good footballers in order to solve Racing problems, something forgotten by many, but Racing could have been relegated". One kind of men would run away from that kind of scenarios, but he chases them. Until today.
How did you change?
It's better to have an opinion from the outside. I'm not that kind of man who looks upon him. But with all the things I've lived, with no doubt we've made a huge step forward. The time in Catania made me realize that there is something more, because I went out from teams with the likes of River, San Lorenzo, Racing or Estudiantes, hunting for silverware, and i went into other which hardly wins away. From that coach who started with a 4-2-3-1, with 2 forwards in the wings. Nowadays I'm much more balanced.
Do you feel more respected in Europe than in Argentina
No, I've always found a lot of respect in Argentina, especially in the football environment. It's clear enough that if you expose new ideas, in the beginning that person is observed with expectation, to call it somehow. And opinions are made and the critic is there.
Until Catania you were a very offensive coach, but since then, and with more emphasis in Atleti, then you opted for a more “pragmatic” approach. Will you mutate again?
These are moments. Simeone as a coach is going to keep changing. I'm looking for the players' characteristics. We started with a 4-2-3-1 which wasn't understood in Argentina, I played Buonanotte on a wing, Papu Gómez on the right, and today, what it's better for us with the footballers I have is playing with more midfielders on the wings, as we do with Saúl or Koke, and that brings me big stability. When I face teams that plays like I used to do 10 years ago, I see that I've got more backup.
Then isn't there a Simeone style?
The style is winning. Based on the players, I'm looking for strenghten one idea: to win. I'm not interested in being liked by the others or neither me. In example, in posession vs direct play, it's not about saying what they want to hear, it's about telling the truth. And if I haven't got the players to build an elaborate posession, I mustn't try what i can't do. You can't play all the matches in the same way, it's not the same to face Sevilla, Valencia or Barcelona. You can't play neither in the same way nor the same players.
What's the main condition you look for in a player?
Passion. Amateurism. I often explain the players that is very hard to find in a important team a player who plays bad. But it's not only about playing good, it's about feeling it. And to feel it, you need to have that amateurism, passion, you can't be indifferent. You must feel that in the training sessions you are prepared to be better. That 20 minutes, sometimes, are more than 90 bad minutes. And best thing that happened to us in this 4 and a half years at the club is that we chose a concept of life (more like a way of life). We don't negotiate the work, we don't negotiate slothiness. Because you can play bad, but the real value is in the capacity of each one to understand how to play football and not the ball. Because everyone can play with the ball, but not everybody plays football. As more players we have who play football, more people we'll have to be more competitives.
How do you get along with the rebel players?
- That player that all of you call a rebel, i prefer to call him different. The other day I heard Sampaoli saying that coachs manage emotions. And that's right. Our jor is more than tactics, we have to know how to handle those emotions. That player that they call rebel it's just different and surely he has more heart (in the sense of being a noble person) than others. It should be in the button that i can press to invite him to join us all. Although is reiterative, no one is more important than the team. Not even Leo (Messi), because he, even being the best of all, has improved even more when Neymar and Suarez reached this current shape. This allow us to keep insisting in that, also the supercracks need from the team.
And do you think you can touch that emotional buttons?
Sometimes, I heard the phrase: “you are a good motivator”. No. Motivation relies in our inner self, each one has his own. It's very hard to spread your motivationto to the others. You “wake” (very remarkadly) his internal motivation. And in each case it's different: one needs to be talked in one way, other in the other way. The great challenge is reading each one's emotions.
The best coach is the one who reads his club's style?
The one who reads his club's style, and i'll add the one who better uses the characteristics of his players. Who is a good coach? I think that the differences between the coaches aren't very much. You can analyze how he transfers his knowledge, how he brings leadership, but we're all kinda the same. The best coach is the one who gets a 5 rated player and makes him play 9 rated.
And that is confirmed when the opposite happens? Diego Costa, Falcao, Arda Turan, Adrián, Courtois, Diego, Mario Suárez,... They haven't played in the same way as they did with you.
It's hard to answer there. Let's say it was luck.
Did you graduate as a world class coach in Atleti?
I don't like the word “graduate”, I hear it and it sounds strange to me, it's not for me because it looks like i'm already on the top, it's over. And i think that until the last day that I manage, i'm going to learn. Because the footballer keeps improving you. The player stimulates you to keep improving in your internal teaching.
Do you dream with coaching a club with unlimited budget... Or you'll always prefer some place who is made for epic?
I think of myself as a young coach, who is today where he wants to stay. It's very motivating give the club which we are giving to it: its growth, its contiuous appearance in Europe, but i know that the coach's career has many ways and some day it will be my time to be in other team. It's part of life.
But would you like that some club tells you: Do whatever you want with the money?
No club lets you do whatever you want with the money. I'm more about sharing the work, I don't think of myself as omnipotent, I'm not a genius in everything. I work for the club. Here in Atleti we look for balance my needs with our resources to strenghten the team. I imagine that if you have a bigger budget, there's more chance of your request to be completed.
Which is the best compliment that you can receive as a coach?
When I hear the other coaches that Atleti has its own style, that makes me happy. It's not easy to have your own style of play. One style can function in some diferent ways: we can play 4-4-2, 4-3-3 during 20 minutes, vary to 4-5-1 with more defenders on the wings or ending with 5 back. But our play style it's absolutely clear, it's only the form what can vary.
You need smarter players.
We come back to the topic of knowing how to choose. We have in the team a lot of young people, and if they learn fast the way the team plays, it's gonna take them out of playing only the ball, not football. I need to them to grow, and for that you have to be smart. You have Matías (Kranevitter), he came from a fantastic River, he arrived and at first he wasn't called. But if you see him, he has the eyes wide open, he is absorbing all the time, he asks everything, he wants to learn... The other day he played against Valencia and he played a fantastic match. That guy is adding a lot of things to his already known capacities. He is going to be better because he has the intelligence to listen carefully, and that's not easy. Do you think that all of them listen in that way to me? No, no, no, they all look me, but not all of them are listening.
And do you realize it quickly?
If i have some virtue, that's the intuition and sensibility with the corporal language of the player. And if I detect some slothiness... That makes me really angry.
And is that unforgivable?
It's not that, I can't bear it.
“I isolate from every situation that makes me feel comfortable” is a phrase that you've said. Do that really represent you?
Absolutely. I think that being comfortable is an invitation to feel relaxed, and that word is like poison to me. Football changes every time, whatever is good today, tomorrow could be wrong. And I'm not looking much further. Tomorrow. Just tomorrow.
Viamonte and Reconquista. The noise from the microcenter didn't get through the windows. It all started in a room of the hotel Amerian. It was Nelson Vivas' room, and about 25 people were inside amongst the silence. "I wanted you all together, i thought that doing it in other way you couldn't get the whole of my idea" remembers the Cholo itself 10 years later. His players are in front of him, 2 weeks before also his teammates of in troubles Racing (Club of Avellaneda). The first technical speech will be something Cholo always remembers. Not the first match, a "Clásico" in the Cilindro (Independiente's stadium) where Independiente won with 2 goals of a little lad called Agüero. The first 6 games of his coach career, Simeone went through them without a win. He doubted? "No. I was truly convinced to myself. I asked some friends and they said me 'don't take it, you're a fool'. And that's what convinced me entirely. One himself has to be himself, don't let you go with the mass' opinion. Convictions are more important than everything, and i was convinced that there was enough good footballers in order to solve Racing problems, something forgotten by many, but Racing could have been relegated". One kind of men would run away from that kind of scenarios, but he chases them. Until today.
How did you change?
It's better to have an opinion from the outside. I'm not that kind of man who looks upon him. But with all the things I've lived, with no doubt we've made a huge step forward. The time in Catania made me realize that there is something more, because I went out from teams with the likes of River, San Lorenzo, Racing or Estudiantes, hunting for silverware, and i went into other which hardly wins away. From that coach who started with a 4-2-3-1, with 2 forwards in the wings. Nowadays I'm much more balanced.
Do you feel more respected in Europe than in Argentina
No, I've always found a lot of respect in Argentina, especially in the football environment. It's clear enough that if you expose new ideas, in the beginning that person is observed with expectation, to call it somehow. And opinions are made and the critic is there.
Until Catania you were a very offensive coach, but since then, and with more emphasis in Atleti, then you opted for a more “pragmatic” approach. Will you mutate again?
These are moments. Simeone as a coach is going to keep changing. I'm looking for the players' characteristics. We started with a 4-2-3-1 which wasn't understood in Argentina, I played Buonanotte on a wing, Papu Gómez on the right, and today, what it's better for us with the footballers I have is playing with more midfielders on the wings, as we do with Saúl or Koke, and that brings me big stability. When I face teams that plays like I used to do 10 years ago, I see that I've got more backup.
Then isn't there a Simeone style?
The style is winning. Based on the players, I'm looking for strenghten one idea: to win. I'm not interested in being liked by the others or neither me. In example, in posession vs direct play, it's not about saying what they want to hear, it's about telling the truth. And if I haven't got the players to build an elaborate posession, I mustn't try what i can't do. You can't play all the matches in the same way, it's not the same to face Sevilla, Valencia or Barcelona. You can't play neither in the same way nor the same players.
What's the main condition you look for in a player?
Passion. Amateurism. I often explain the players that is very hard to find in a important team a player who plays bad. But it's not only about playing good, it's about feeling it. And to feel it, you need to have that amateurism, passion, you can't be indifferent. You must feel that in the training sessions you are prepared to be better. That 20 minutes, sometimes, are more than 90 bad minutes. And best thing that happened to us in this 4 and a half years at the club is that we chose a concept of life (more like a way of life). We don't negotiate the work, we don't negotiate slothiness. Because you can play bad, but the real value is in the capacity of each one to understand how to play football and not the ball. Because everyone can play with the ball, but not everybody plays football. As more players we have who play football, more people we'll have to be more competitives.
How do you get along with the rebel players?
- That player that all of you call a rebel, i prefer to call him different. The other day I heard Sampaoli saying that coachs manage emotions. And that's right. Our jor is more than tactics, we have to know how to handle those emotions. That player that they call rebel it's just different and surely he has more heart (in the sense of being a noble person) than others. It should be in the button that i can press to invite him to join us all. Although is reiterative, no one is more important than the team. Not even Leo (Messi), because he, even being the best of all, has improved even more when Neymar and Suarez reached this current shape. This allow us to keep insisting in that, also the supercracks need from the team.
And do you think you can touch that emotional buttons?
Sometimes, I heard the phrase: “you are a good motivator”. No. Motivation relies in our inner self, each one has his own. It's very hard to spread your motivationto to the others. You “wake” (very remarkadly) his internal motivation. And in each case it's different: one needs to be talked in one way, other in the other way. The great challenge is reading each one's emotions.
The best coach is the one who reads his club's style?
The one who reads his club's style, and i'll add the one who better uses the characteristics of his players. Who is a good coach? I think that the differences between the coaches aren't very much. You can analyze how he transfers his knowledge, how he brings leadership, but we're all kinda the same. The best coach is the one who gets a 5 rated player and makes him play 9 rated.
And that is confirmed when the opposite happens? Diego Costa, Falcao, Arda Turan, Adrián, Courtois, Diego, Mario Suárez,... They haven't played in the same way as they did with you.
It's hard to answer there. Let's say it was luck.
Did you graduate as a world class coach in Atleti?
I don't like the word “graduate”, I hear it and it sounds strange to me, it's not for me because it looks like i'm already on the top, it's over. And i think that until the last day that I manage, i'm going to learn. Because the footballer keeps improving you. The player stimulates you to keep improving in your internal teaching.
Do you dream with coaching a club with unlimited budget... Or you'll always prefer some place who is made for epic?
I think of myself as a young coach, who is today where he wants to stay. It's very motivating give the club which we are giving to it: its growth, its contiuous appearance in Europe, but i know that the coach's career has many ways and some day it will be my time to be in other team. It's part of life.
But would you like that some club tells you: Do whatever you want with the money?
No club lets you do whatever you want with the money. I'm more about sharing the work, I don't think of myself as omnipotent, I'm not a genius in everything. I work for the club. Here in Atleti we look for balance my needs with our resources to strenghten the team. I imagine that if you have a bigger budget, there's more chance of your request to be completed.
Which is the best compliment that you can receive as a coach?
When I hear the other coaches that Atleti has its own style, that makes me happy. It's not easy to have your own style of play. One style can function in some diferent ways: we can play 4-4-2, 4-3-3 during 20 minutes, vary to 4-5-1 with more defenders on the wings or ending with 5 back. But our play style it's absolutely clear, it's only the form what can vary.
You need smarter players.
We come back to the topic of knowing how to choose. We have in the team a lot of young people, and if they learn fast the way the team plays, it's gonna take them out of playing only the ball, not football. I need to them to grow, and for that you have to be smart. You have Matías (Kranevitter), he came from a fantastic River, he arrived and at first he wasn't called. But if you see him, he has the eyes wide open, he is absorbing all the time, he asks everything, he wants to learn... The other day he played against Valencia and he played a fantastic match. That guy is adding a lot of things to his already known capacities. He is going to be better because he has the intelligence to listen carefully, and that's not easy. Do you think that all of them listen in that way to me? No, no, no, they all look me, but not all of them are listening.
And do you realize it quickly?
If i have some virtue, that's the intuition and sensibility with the corporal language of the player. And if I detect some slothiness... That makes me really angry.
And is that unforgivable?
It's not that, I can't bear it.
“I isolate from every situation that makes me feel comfortable” is a phrase that you've said. Do that really represent you?
Absolutely. I think that being comfortable is an invitation to feel relaxed, and that word is like poison to me. Football changes every time, whatever is good today, tomorrow could be wrong. And I'm not looking much further. Tomorrow. Just tomorrow.
“This Barcelona is on his way to be the most complete one”
After two season at Sevilla, Simeone's career as a player was demanding another leap of quality. If Real Madrid had chosen Artur Jorge as a coach, then the portuguese would bring Cholo with him. But the White House changed his mind and opted for Jorge Valdano, who, in 1994, moved from Tenerife to Chamartín neighbourhood with Fernando Redondo. Then Cholo went to Atlético, and since then his life is full of a colchonero feeling. “Only time will tell”, repeats when he's asked by that question, already answered by the fans: since 2012, Atleti is enjoying the best moment of its history.
How do you rate Barcelona as a whole? All the process?
It depends on how they will end this season, but Luis Enrique's work is extraordinary. Guardiola built that Barcelona that was a champion, he built the team that he imagined, but Luis Enrique took a winner team and he kept on improving them and strenghten them, because today Barcelona counterattacks you, they work well with set pieces (both offensive and deffensive). It's more complete. But, hey, this is going to be remembered in this way if they keep on wining, because the other team (Guardiola's) won everything. They are on his way to be a team with better records.
You played against Barcelona from Pep, Tito, Martino and LE. Any differences?
Those teams had more posession, they hadn't a reference number 9. Nowadays they are more pragmatic and with better subs.
Is being second in the table between Barcelona and Real Madrid a confirmation of what is Atleti, that hated team by the big ones?
Our challenge is with ourselves: overcome us. As it happened in previous seasons, we are competing against them again. And that's not casual, there's an intense team, which works well defensively, there's a much bigger work that... we'll see. We have a confirmation.
In your last New Year postcard you quoted John Rockefeller: “Don't be afraid to give up the good things to go for the best”. Does this mean that you are looking for new places to go?
No, it's about taking off the stage fright. I made it thinking about the team... One always finds hard ways or obstacles, but in the end it's about playing football.
What do you feel when you hear that some Premier League teams or Inter want to bring you with their money?
It doesn't affect me. In the same way that a critic doesn't affect me neither. Rumours pop and disappear. I keep waking up with the same illusion to coach and i feel really passionate in every training session of Atleti as it were the last.
http://canchallena.lanacion.com.ar/...ota-juegan-muchos-pero-al-futbol-juegan-pocos
After two season at Sevilla, Simeone's career as a player was demanding another leap of quality. If Real Madrid had chosen Artur Jorge as a coach, then the portuguese would bring Cholo with him. But the White House changed his mind and opted for Jorge Valdano, who, in 1994, moved from Tenerife to Chamartín neighbourhood with Fernando Redondo. Then Cholo went to Atlético, and since then his life is full of a colchonero feeling. “Only time will tell”, repeats when he's asked by that question, already answered by the fans: since 2012, Atleti is enjoying the best moment of its history.
How do you rate Barcelona as a whole? All the process?
It depends on how they will end this season, but Luis Enrique's work is extraordinary. Guardiola built that Barcelona that was a champion, he built the team that he imagined, but Luis Enrique took a winner team and he kept on improving them and strenghten them, because today Barcelona counterattacks you, they work well with set pieces (both offensive and deffensive). It's more complete. But, hey, this is going to be remembered in this way if they keep on wining, because the other team (Guardiola's) won everything. They are on his way to be a team with better records.
You played against Barcelona from Pep, Tito, Martino and LE. Any differences?
Those teams had more posession, they hadn't a reference number 9. Nowadays they are more pragmatic and with better subs.
Is being second in the table between Barcelona and Real Madrid a confirmation of what is Atleti, that hated team by the big ones?
Our challenge is with ourselves: overcome us. As it happened in previous seasons, we are competing against them again. And that's not casual, there's an intense team, which works well defensively, there's a much bigger work that... we'll see. We have a confirmation.
In your last New Year postcard you quoted John Rockefeller: “Don't be afraid to give up the good things to go for the best”. Does this mean that you are looking for new places to go?
No, it's about taking off the stage fright. I made it thinking about the team... One always finds hard ways or obstacles, but in the end it's about playing football.
What do you feel when you hear that some Premier League teams or Inter want to bring you with their money?
It doesn't affect me. In the same way that a critic doesn't affect me neither. Rumours pop and disappear. I keep waking up with the same illusion to coach and i feel really passionate in every training session of Atleti as it were the last.
http://canchallena.lanacion.com.ar/...ota-juegan-muchos-pero-al-futbol-juegan-pocos
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