News · From the live show
Nacho Donado: 'If the plan is long balls to Sorloth, we're dead'
He wants the build-up from the back drilled to exhaustion against German-school sides
Nacho Donado, blunt about Sorloth's role against Bayern's press
Nacho Donado believes playing out from the back will define Atlético's season. German sides have found the team's Achilles' heel and, in his view, Sorloth falls well short as the only escape route against the press.
Nacho Donado refuses to accept injuries and absences as an excuse. After watching the game against Bayern, he would set to work on playing out from the back until it hurts and the players are sick of it, because he believes it is what will define Atlético de Madrid's season.
He explains that LaLiga sides do not demand as much as German teams, heirs to gegenpressing and fundamentalists of that style of play: Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern. According to Donado, they have found a glaring Achilles' heel in Atleti, and if other opponents dare to do the same, the team will suffer.
On Sorloth, he does not want to be too harsh given it was his first start of the season. But even at his best, based on what he has shown over two seasons, he considers him far from good enough for this kind of game. If Atleti want to go long to beat the press, they need a striker who works harder and better for the team. Rubén Uría sums it up in one line: we have a problem. And Donado's verdict is that if that is how they intend to deal with the press, Atleti are dead.