Realmadrid News

Raúl press conference:"Winning the League is the only thing on my mind"

How could the team concede such an early goal?
We have seen the strangest things in football and this is just one more example; we knew we had to be very concentrated in the first few minutes. Maintaining a clean sheet would have eased the task for us as the minutes ticked by. But they turned the tie around in just fifteen seconds. That's the way things happened. Even so, the team reacted, controlled the match and had a few chances to go through to the quarterfinals.

Many sad faces?
We're all in this together, so it is obvious there's much disappointment. Now, most importantly, we need to focus on Saturday's match, on the fight for the League title and on making our fans proud again. It goes without saying that they really deserve it. Let's hope things work out in Barcelona.

Did Sergio Ramos touch the ball with his hand?
In the pitch, I thought the ball touched his hand. The referee saw it and he called it.


Is the defeat especially painful?
Defeats are always painful. You can't be happy when you don't win. We all work to be in top form and win. We will fight to win La Liga.

Is it time to pass judgement and take decisions?
Not for the time being. Assessing and judging the situation and analysing the performance and the results has to be done at the end of the season. So far, it's been a highly irregular campaign. We haven't found our pace and playing range. We haven't had a string of victories that would assert our self-confidence and give us peace of mind. If we don't win on Saturday, the gap would already be very wide, but our duty is to keep on fighting until the end. There are still many matchdays left; we are concentrated and we know there is still time to fight for the League. If things finally don't turn out right, the people who manage the Club will take the necessary decisions. At Real Madrid, winning is all that counts. The last few years have seen a number of changes but the objectives are still far away.

Did you expect Guti to be out of the starting eleven?
Capello decides the teamsheet that he thinks will best suit the team's needs. When Guti came in, it was a totally different game. Our game flowed, but that's the way things are. He's the coach and he's the one who decides the lineups.

Is today's Capello very different from the one you met ten years back?
We all change as life goes on, but as a coach he still has the same personality, commitment to hard work, and footballing approach that he did ten years ago. But, in our world, things don't always turn out the way we want them to.

Is the problem within the squad?
Everyone looks for guilty names when things don't work out. Let's not forget that we said goodbye to twelve players this season. I think that changing the amount of players that people are postulating for the upcoming season cannot be good either. There's a top quality squad. There are always players that can come to improve on what there already is and others that wil leave, but this is a good squad.

But, on occasion, the blame is put directly on the players…
The players have their share of responsibility. The current situation is not easy. Some things were not done correctly. But it is true that we are the ones playing out on the field. We have to limit our scope of action to the pitch, where we know what to do. We know our performance is far from acceptable this year. The image has been poor on certain matches, but we shouldn't forget that we have also won some very important ones.

Is this cycle over?
I don't know when the cycles begin or end. I don't know exactly what cycle we're in right now. It's been four years where we have tried to do things right. We had won so much in the seven years prior to this. So the whole situation is very tough for a winning Club like ours. The sporting area has had poor results, but we will keep fighting to revert the trend. We're all here to lend a hand and pull through this together. We all want to play, but the decisions are down to the people in charge. All we can do is comply with their wishes and decisions, train hard and try to win every game.

Would you settle for fourth place right now?
No, absolutely not. I'm thinking of winning the League. That is, perfectly aware that there are tough teams in front of us that we will have to play and who will be extremely hard to beat. We will know where we stand after these games I'm talking about.

What does the Club say to the players?
The Club supports us and backs us up. They encourage us to keep winnng games. That is the message they deliver.

What did you think of the meeting with the President at training last week?
The President wanted to speak to us and he thought it was best done at the training ground. That's all there is to say. We thank him for his confidence in us.

How are Madrid and Barcelona coming into the Clásico?
We're both just out of the Champions League and now we have to focus entirely on the League. They have a slight advantage because they play at home. But we will try to engage on equal footing, curtail their domination and maintain ball control. We managed to do that on many stages of the game yesterday.

You are still not playing on your natural position.
The coach knows well where I perform better. Everyone knows, but the circumstances have forced me to play elsewhere. But the intention is the same: drive up to the box and score as many goals as possible. I think of the team first, in any event.

Press conference by Cristina Monge
Photos by Daniel Sastre
Translation by Luis Orueta

posted by khalidmrrakchi@hotmail.com @ 6:32 PM