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The players are divided into two classes. The living football as a diversion more or less professional and those who do not conceive of anything more rewarding to play, even if it is free. To the last be recognized for the commitment febrile with that act in the field. Hector Herrera (Rosarito, Mexico, 29 years old), the new midfielder of Atletico, belongs to this category in their purest form. This Thursday (20.00, Movistar LK), the set atletico faced Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Supercopa of Spain, in Jeddah (Saudi).
Question. You were born in Baja California, a place that suggests beaches, and surfers…
Response. I was Born in Tijuana, in northern Baja California. The beaches are to the south.
Q. how Your childhood was difficult?
A. Bah! Oh fun! It was all joy.
Q. did you know quick that I wanted to be a footballer?
A. I Always wanted. It was always a dream but I didn’t know that it would be player. I wanted to play for the selection, for the best teams of Mexico. Of a child, dreamed dreams, and saw the tele and the parties. Was very clear that I wanted to be a player. But in order to arrive depend on the destination.
Q. You will be positioned on the field as if he had a radar. Gets position with ease to defend and that their companions are free. How to get something so you have to run a lot or think a lot?
A. The pass of the years, the experience, you’ll be giving a better reading of the game and better positioning. I’m obviously not the same player that he was when I came to Europe at the age of 23. Today’s step for a moment of maturity which may be the best point of my career. Game more focused, more attentive. And that helps you to understand more quickly what the coach asks and what the team needs. Passes for that. This does not mean that a young person is not able to do so. Basically, it is a matter of concentration.
Q. Until the end of October did not begin to count for Simeone on a regular basis. How had so much patience, coming as it came, being the captain seated Porto?
A. Was prepared for any scenario. I knew that was not going to be easy: “Come, Hector Herrera, and captain of Porto, and will play one”. No. That summer I resigned from the selection and I was very criticized. I knew that I had to prepare both mentally and physically to come to as big a challenge as it is Atletico Madrid. Thank God I think I prepared very well. I raised any scenario. I knew that if I didn’t play on start would be for something, because it was not adapted to the system or due to other circumstances. It didn’t have to judge the coach.
Q. have you Talked with Simeone before signing?
why would I be afraid to lose the ball? This is maturity: to give you more scared not to try that again. Even if you play against Messi, which in my opinion is the best in the world
A. When I signed the Cholo not talked with me. I spoke with the president [Enrique Cerezo], with Miguel Angel Gil [ceo] and with Andrea Berta [sports director]. And the truth is that I also did not expect him to speak with me. I knew that if they had brought me was for a reason, and that after you would have to do my work and convince the coach, or that I know, and to let you know that you could count on me. It is true that in the beginning it was difficult but I was prepared for everything.
Q. have You always played as a flyer inside?
A. Yes.
Q. The statistics says that having fulfilled the first half of LaLiga Atletico is the ninth team in the ranking of passes completed: 6.000, below the club, which is the first 11.044, the Madrid 9.197, or Valencia with 6,500. The development more and more restricted of the plays has an impact especially in the midfield, where surely will have less of the ball than in Porto. How do you live in?
A. Passes by the game system of each coach. Here it is played with a system that is not elaborate, as the Barcelona. I know that I have to work for what the coach and the team want. I have to adapt.
Q. In the Athletic even Thomas, the midfielder, defensive or central, can play the ball to the flyers like you.
A. Because in our game, the midfielders just have to make a pass in transition. There is that happen quickly. We do not play to hold the ball. We are a team of transitions or quick attacks that tend to be very strong defensively.
Q. Is comfortable in the quick transition?
A. see, I’m not a player fast. But I adapt and I find myself right in the system.
Q. How do you give such an impression of serenity in the times told that it has the ball and gives a pass? How do you overcome the fear of losing the ball in a model that strives for security above all?
A. why should I be afraid? If I lose it I run and that’s it. Because if not I lose it, just like I run! It is the experience. At 23 years old if he played against Barca as I behaved otherwise. Not today. This is maturity: to give you more scared not to try that again. Even if you play against Messi, which in my opinion is the best in the world. It is an extra motivation. I prefer a thousand times that I criticize them for losing the ball that for not loving her. In addition, when you give you already know what you’re going to do: stick your buttock to cover and hold on, pass, or dribble… why are you going to be afraid? It has always been my way of playing.
Q. , Paradoxically, in the last Atletico-Barca the team that best played the counterattack was the Barcelona. How that happened because the club was left to dominate, or because the Athletic hid the ball?
A. Was by the way in which a game is played. We do not gave him the initiative. Give it is the worst thing you can do. The first time we were pretty well on the pressure. We rob them of balls with which we were able to make enough damage. Unfortunately not we. But we were very fine with the ball. Only we lacked the effectiveness to mark. We were able to make two goals.
As a football lover, if you really want to have the ball again, defender is a pleasure! Run, go to press, sweep, get up, run into, pass, meter goals… All of that is the pleasure of the football
Q. Said Valverde after the match that they had sought to create spaceios to launch Messi and Suarez at the back of the defence of Atletico. Have you noticed that Barca were preparing the cons?
A. Possibly yes. But I think that we are not so easy to contragolpear. Defensively we are always well prepared and orderly. That is one of the fundamentals that make the system of Cholo one of the best. We are one of the teams least goleados. Make it a goal to Atletico to make a move like that made Messi the best in the world, in the 0-1 Wanda. If the opponents do not take advantage of our small oversights makes it very difficult.
Q. did you notice comfortable the Barca players in the Wanda?
A. I Had the impression that they were surprised of what was happening on the field. I looked and didn’t know what to do to reverse the situation. If they won was because they took full advantage of the minimal space that we leave you, thanks to the high level players that have.
Q. Valverde puts Griezmann to defend as a midfielder, on the left. How can Atletico take advantage of this denaturation?
A. Them defensively they are also strong, especially after the loss of the ball, when they are in our field, not theirs.
Q. There are teams in the midfield that protects the plants eventually also jump to the pressure. Does it say that this Atletico is always defensively ordered because the plants are never left without a steering wheel to protect? If you jump, Thomas is you, and if you jump it is Thomas…
A. Is what you say: it is the way of being always well positioned. If Thomas leaves, I have to stay ahead of the power plants.
Q. What a player of Barca pressed him to you?
A. Arthur De Jong. And a lot of times I jumped to Rakitic, who played as a [midfielder] fixed.
Q. To go to press Rakitic from his position there to run quite a few meters and many times that effort is for nothing because the opponent retains the ball in your power, and then it’s back to work. Do you have to be able to play with pain to make those movements?
A. One of my virtues is that: the measurements say that I am one of the players that miles traveled. Oh, and I like it! If playing football is what you love you have to like to run behind the ball. There is tiredness. It is the normal thing. But it is the pleasure of playing. Not just running with the ball gives pleasure. Defensively there is that help. As a lover of football you can’t think that that involves a pain, or a sacrifice. If you really want to have the ball again, defender is a pleasure! Run, go to press, sweep, get up, run into, pass, meter goals… All of that is the pleasure of the football. Not only to have the ball. Without that constant movement can neither control the parties or the breathing again.
Q. You are faced with João Felix in the Portuguese League. What caught the attention of him?
A. That made me heavy. I said, “oh, this is what heavy is!”. We won back very well. Went down very well between the containment means and the defenses, and then turned around. It was fast. A player is super smart when it comes to play. With a lot of quality. With details of crack. Is a second tip with a lot of goal. I think that may be a great player.
Q. Then I liked your clear your driving.
A. To see: he has very good driving. But you can never have a good driving if before don’t know to win the spaces. He will win the back and then rotates and drives very well. But what I like most about him is his intelligence, his search for the spaces to be positioned without having the corpulence that would help you protect the ball.
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