Simeone defends rotation policy as Atlético welcome Athletic in LaLiga

Simeone on Jan Oblak

“He’s recovering. He played his first match the other day, he’ll play against Athletic and we’ll see how he responds. We’ll take it day by day.”

Simeone on the run of defeats

“Honestly, I don’t think what happened previously will be reflected in the match. There’s a lot of excitement. Obviously, when it’s time to play that match, the team will be in great shape.”

Simeone on the academy players

“They’ve had a great opportunity this season, because the team has been in contention in all three competitions almost right to the end. We’ll see in the Champions League if we can go all the way, and that’s a lot of matches. We need to manage the squad as best we can to compete in three tournaments. The young players are giving us options. Some have clearly performed better than others, as can be expected. We expect to keep looking to the academy, because that’s the strength of the future.”

Simeone on the locker room

“The dressing room is fine, knowing what’s at stake, knowing the opportunity we missed in the cup final and looking forward to what’s coming, given how hard it’s been to get this far and what we can achieve if things go our way. As for me, I’m just like them.”

Simeone on injured players

“Hancko is still recovering, Sørloth is better, Lookman has to wait. Thank goodness we took him off against Real; otherwise, it might have been worse.”

Simeone on fourth place

“We always try to look at who’s closest to us. We’re five points behind Villarreal and eight ahead of Betis.”

Simeone on complaints about rotations against teams fighting relegation

“My expectation is to compete in all three competitions until the end, and we have two games left to play all the matches that can be played in a year.”