Real Madrid continued their excellent La Liga form on Saturday with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu. Fede Valverde was one of the scorers, as he continued his good form after returning to midfield.
As per Marca, Valverde spoke to the media after Saturday’s match. He expressed his satisfaction at the team’s good moment in La Liga after difficult results in the Champions League and Copa del Rey.
“The energy, the good results that come in and that the team is feeling good. We’ve had weeks where we’ve swallowed a lot of s*** and I think that helped us grow as players, grow as people. We have gone through bad times, and I think the criticism was well deserved. In the end it made us change, mature as players who haven’t won anything during the past year, we haven’t won anything during this year. So the first thing to do is to settle down, grow as people each, grow as players on a day-to-day basis. Knowing that things have to change, that they were not right and I think that now is the time.”
Valverde also made it clear that there are no dressing room issues at Real Madrid, with the entire team moving forward as one under new head coach Alvaro Arbeloa.
“The dressing room has always been united. I think that at least what I think personally is that also when the results are winning it helps a lot to have another fluidity when it comes to working in training, that there is less anger, that in the end we are 25 players. We all fight to play-11 play, there are 5 changes. There will always be a player who is a little less happy than another because he would like to play more, but well, I think that when things go like this, this way we win, that players change, they come in, they do their bit, they do it well. I think it helps everything to play better.”
Valverde opens up on Real Madrid captaincy pressures
Valverde, who was appointed as Real Madrid’s vice-captain last summer after Luka Modric’s exit, has regularly wore the armband this season. He spoke on how he has found this role over the last few months.
“It was my first year as the most responsible captain and well, it was tough obviously. If I tell you it was incredible, I’d be lying to you in the end. I feel responsible when things are not good, my way of being is like that, it is not because I am also captain, always when things are not good or we do not win, I am always the first to blame.
“At least I get home and try to do everything possible, watch football, the game we played to be able to change attitudes between teammates and to be able to do the minimum to be able to change all this. Obviously I’m the first one who when things don’t go well feels responsible for all this that is happening, it’s okay that they are whistling at others, we as teammates have to be strong, we know that we have gone through very bad moments. As I said many times, well deserved for the moment we were doing during the season.”
