Sevilla FC-Atletico de Madrid: Simeone and Mendilibar out to lay down a marker for the season ahead

The LaLiga EA Sports Summer Tour has arrived in San Francisco, where Oracle Park will host two games on Saturday — Real Betis will play Real Sociedad in the first kickoff at 4pm PT, while Atletico de Madrid will take on Sevilla in the late game, kicking off at 7pm.

Diego Simeone and Jose Luis Mendilibar spoke to the media deep within Oracle Park on Friday, where both managers had a chance to preview Saturday’s friendly and lay out their ambitions for the season ahead.

Simeone waiting for one last puzzle piece

After a dreadful start to the 2022/23 campaign, Atletico Madrid were arguably the best team in Spain in the second half of last season. Los Colchoneros finished 11 points behind eventual champions FC Barcelona but pushed for second place until the final day – and many have singled them out as serious title contenders for 2023/24.

Atletico have spent much of the summer chasing a new central midfielder and have set their sights on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Tottenham Hotspur. It’s a deal that Simeone and chief executive Miguel Angel Gil want to get over the line – and when asked, El Cholo said he wants that extra bit of quality to mount challenges in multiple competitions.

“The club will do what’s important in the best way,” Simeone said. “From the coaching side, we have to give our perspective on what we think is best.”

Mendilibar not resting on his laurels

What was a shockingly-poor start to the 2022/23 season for Sevilla eventually ended in a familiar place — a UEFA Europa League title and instant qualification to this season’s UEFA Champions League.

Jose Luis Mendilibar was the third managerial appointment of the season for Sevilla and, despite never having managed in a UEFA competition before, still guided Los Nervionenses to their seventh Europa League victory since 2006.

“We’re about to start LaLiga, and I want my players to play the maximum number of minutes. … We want (the starters) to play at least 70 minutes, and five or six to play all 90,” Mendilibar told the media of his approach for Saturday. “We have to be ready now.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Nemanja Gudelj seemed happy with the work being put in during preseason and said there has been a “good rhythm” as the new season dawns.

“As a team, we are feeling very good, we train very well. …We are in the final stretch of the preseason. We are in very good form, and you can see it in the games. You can see that we’re picking up more rhythm,” Gudelj said. “Tomorrow’s game is all that remains, and then the real thing begins.”

Gudelj and Mendilibar were also complimentary of new midfielder Djibril Sow, whose signing from Eintracht Frankfurt was confirmed Friday.

“He’ll have to get used to his teammates, to the ideas we have about the game,” Mendilibar said. “He looks energetic, smart, surely the first thing is that he learns the language with ease, which will be important. And he will surely adapt.”