Medrán: "Facing strong rivals, both title contenders" | OneFootball

The coach of Colón spoke with the press ahead of the weekend's match for the 3rd round of the Primera Nacional and said the following.

Yes, today we are still working on getting the team ready for Saturday. Alan was able to train normally, which is important. Lago continued working separately, we'll resolve it tomorrow.

And yes, today Matías Godoy had a trauma, a training knock, tomorrow we will also analyze how he evolves.

Ultimately, I think the start of the tournament is good, how the team is competing. I think it's important for it to have clarity, to be a solid team when competing. The first match, as I said here in the conference, I think it was very positive because we came from an important preseason. The team started gaining football minutes, competition rhythm, and as this progresses, we will find our strengths, our weaknesses, and see what works best for us.

And in that, it's inevitable that we need to keep adding football minutes. I take away that we were a solid team, we were a compact team in the last match, maybe in the opponent's goal we didn't have the weight we wanted, or in the final meters we didn't have the certainty when deepening or loading the area well. Well, obviously there are always things to improve.

As I said in the previous match against Madrid, really good things were done and there are things to improve when you draw or don't achieve. That result we went to seek in Salta is the same way, but well, we are on the right path of continuing to build and we are doing well.

We are satisfied. We are satisfied with how we have worked in the transfer market.

Today, with characteristics of a number nine, you have Bonansea, Castro, Lucas Cano. Then in the second instance or second line accompanying, Godoy can do it, Nacho Lago can do it, the same Juli Marcioni can do it. We are obviously prioritizing many of them on the wing.

But no, we are covered. When some injury situations arise or a specific situation, one gets unbalanced, but ultimately we have a balanced team in terms of squad numbers.

The characteristic of the team in the match against Madrid had the same intentions. We played with a center forward, with another forward accompanying on the wing. Obviously, the level of the players or that fluidity or those sensations end up leading to better functioning or not so much. But the intentions in terms of the collective were always the same.

A solid, compact team, with good runs, with the possibility of doubling on the wing. And we also like that the second striker can come to receive behind the midfielders and when they block the wing projections, to have the alternative inside, which we sought with Lucas Cano, which we then sought in the second half with Godoy. And what I said, right? That physical imbalance, that we are getting the team up to speed with some players who arrived later in the transfer market.

Obviously, we will incorporate them fully. What one intends is that from the fourth match onwards, we are all even in terms of physical readiness, right?

The positive is that we were a compact, solid team, very generous when it came to recovering the ball, not giving space to the opposing team. And obviously, as a point to keep improving, is the offensive part, where we didn't have that lucidity in the final meters, right? To look for that decisive pass or to load the area better. That's a point we have to keep working on, keep improving.

But it's not just about the offensive players. I always say it's the collective. Today we managed to keep a clean sheet due to great collective work and we didn't have the ability to open the score due to a collective team effort that we didn't have that capacity.

After the tournament, we really find ourselves with a tournament where teams have been well-assembled. When you study Ferro, Ferro has been playing really well in the two matches it played. It has a good squad, it has good substitutes.

We will have a nice test on Saturday, we will face a great squad. When you watch Copa Argentina at night, how Morón plays, how Godoy Cruz plays, how San Juan plays, how Madryn plays. Really, there are teams that have been assembled with serious intentions of seeking promotion.

I would dare to say that there are 10, 12 teams that have an extremely competitive squad. We are one of them. We believe in the work we have been doing and we know the complexity of the category.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.