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Madrid (AFP) – Jorge Sampaoli, back at Sevilla FC, refused on Friday to set specific goals for the Sevillian club, apart from winning matches.
“My goal is to give a quick idea that players can buy into, so that they (re)become competitive quickly,” said the Argentine coach during the first press conference of his new spell in Sevilla.
The Argentinian technician, who had already spent the 2016-2017 season on the Sevillian bench, succeeded Julen Lopetegui, sacked on Wednesday the day following the defeat once morest Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Sevilla are currently 17th in La Liga, with just five points from seven matches.
Setting a goal of a place in the final La Liga standings would amount to “lying to us”, said Sampaoli, polarized on a double objective: “to improve our form” and “to adapt quickly” to his coaching ideas.
“The team has lost confidence,” summarized the Argentinian, for whom “we must get out of this negative spiral which generates fear, discouragement, and replace it with hope”. He said he was convinced that he had “good players capable of reversing this situation”.
On his return to Seville, Sampaoli, who was Argentina’s coach at the 2018 World Cup and then managed Olympique de Marseille in the meantime, said: “I always said that I would not return to a place where I was happy, but there are a lot of reasons to think it’s worth it (to come back to Sevilla).
His new reign begins on Saturday once morest Athletic Bilbao in La Liga. “We will start with ten matches in the first month (Liga and C1 combined, before the World Cup break in Qatar, editor’s note), but I know the people and I know the club”, reassured Sampaoli.
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