The manager said his players were “fatigue-ridden” against Real Sociedad
Villarreal CF manager, Marcelino García Toral, said that it was accumulated “fatigue” from the last several days which meant his team couldn’t get the three points against Real Sociedad at El Madrigal. “The fatigue was noticeable. We didn’t have that spark. We struggled to defend and win the second balls. We defended solidly as always, but we made things more difficult for ourselves as we lost a lot of the 50/50 challenges”.
Marcelino believes Villarreal found it difficult to create up top: “Real made the pitch big for us and they won most of the second balls. We were slow with the ball at our feet. We didn’t do enough to win tonight. In general, we weren’t anything special”.
According to the manager, it’s the time to “keep going” now to make sure they confirm the fourth place finish in the table as soon as possible: “We haven’t got to look at what anyone else is doing. Athletic didn’t win, but the priority was for us to win, which would have practically given us the Champions League spot. We have to keep going now. We didn’t win the final tonight even though we gave everything we had. We can’t blame ourselves at all”.
