Dragons coach Albert Riera explained why Olimpija played only one friendly match in Turkey before returning to Ljubljana
Goodbye, Turkey. Welcome, Ljubljana. The Olimpija players will return home on Friday after the first part of their preparations. They trained on Turkish soil more than in Turkey, and played their only friendly match on Thursday, when they drew 3-3 with Rakow, the Polish league leaders. Albert Riera told Sportklub before his return home that the decision to have only one friendly match was his own and was not related to alleged organisational problems, as some media have suggested recently.
“I am the one who decides how many games we play. The reason we only played one game? When you play against a good opponent, you have to be ready for it. If we see it at 50%, then I can’t expect to see the things I want to see on the pitch. We are now at 80%, which means that players can play one half. My philosophy is that I don’t play games just to play games. I prefer a good training session to a bad match,” is for
Sportclub
Albert Riera, who visited the Dragons in Turkey, explained.
Not bad for a first match
The Spanish expert also admitted that he was satisfied with what he saw in the match against Rakow, David Tijanić’s former club. “Rakow is a great team, they are physically fit, they are strong, they are very dangerous on breaks. They play with three defenders and two high-post wing-backs, and they take a lot of risks in the game. They are quite concentrated in the middle, which this time prevented us from taking control of the action on the ground,” explained the coach of the leading club
of the Telemach First League
.
Albert Riera, who felt at home in Turkey having spent three years in the country as a Galatasaray player, added: “It’s a good test, I’ve tried different things. In the first half we played a diamond in the middle of the pitch, in the second half we played a more standard 4-3-3. I want the players to get width and learn how to play in different positions. The second half was better, and I am happy with the first half. We scored two goals after passing errors, I’m not complaining about that, it’s part of football. We were an equal opponent to the Polish championship’s leading team. Not bad for a first match.”
This text was automatically translated using AI.
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