“For every player, the first choice is the Premier League.”

Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk evaluated the points gained against Atletico Madrid and reflected on the winter market.

Point evaluation

“Atlético are a team that is doing very well. They had around 50% possession in the first half. They defended thoroughly in the second half. Getting points is very important to be in the top 24 or top 16. It was a very difficult game, but we had to take the positives. Next week will be a very difficult game against Manchester City.”

last chance to fail

“In football, sometimes these kinds of chances happen and sometimes they fail. The important thing is to take the chance. Confidence in the moment is important. There are some things that I can’t explain. The most important thing is to take the chance. Overall, I’m very happy with the performance of the players.”

Team irregularities.

“I understand that some people think that our players choose their matches based on their performance, but what people don’t realize is that playing in Turkey is a lot different than playing in the Champions League. In the Champions League, you have teams that are faster on the ball. In Spain, the games are played much earlier than in Turkey, so you are used to moving the ball faster. It’s a different competition with different teams.”

rotate

“The next game is in three days. It’s complicated to play every four days. We’ll try to recover well. We have to rotate and there’s no travel, which is an advantage because travel is also a burden on the players. We’ll prepare the players right away.”

winter market

“We are chasing players. In January the situation will be more complicated, so we will not be able to find the players we want. We can also look for young players for the future. But the problem is that every player’s first option is to play in the Premier League. Even though we have the Champions League, they think that coming to the Turkish League will lower the level.”

Simeone praises Galatasaray’s game

“I also said that it’s a very important team, an important team with a technical director who has very specific things. They made a change because they put a right-back at centre-back. They didn’t have a replacement right-back because he became a father. We were happy with the change in Sorloth, but in his place came Griezmann, who is a very high-level player. For me, it was a great experience to play against a team like that. This team has a lot of fitness. You’ll find out later who your opponent is. ”