Peñarroya, coach of Partizan: “That’s going to change. Years ago, Barça, Real Madrid or Panathinaikos lost six or seven games, and between them. Now that doesn’t exist”
Joan Penarroya He arrived in Belgrade in a situation of enormous tension. The Egarense coach, after leaving Barcelona, signed for the Partizan to straighten the course of the Serbian team. Zeljko Obradovic couldn’t take it anymore and resigned in the middle of the season and it was Peñarroya who was in charge of turning the situation around.
In an interesting interview for ‘Gigantes’, Joan Penarroya He has spoken about the intense season at the helm of Partizan and about the change in mentality throughout Europe regarding victories and defeats. “I found what I imagined, even a little more exaggerated, because you begin to see how people work there, the passion with which they live it, the feeling with which they live everything related to their club“he details.
“I try to focus on the team, first on getting to know them, on knowing how they functioned. The whole tense atmosphere of the last few weeks had surely multiplied having a series of habits, of situations, that were not appropriate to function as a team,” he comments. Penarroyawhich states that its first function was to “establish habits and try to instill small rules.”
With the Euroleague schedule becoming more demanding, Penarroya talks about the need to understand that there is increasingly the option of losing more games. “It’s complicated, because there isn’t that mentality here, but it’s going to change. Years ago, teams like Barça, Real Madrid or Panathinaikos lost maybe six or seven games in an entire season, and they lost them to each other.. Now that doesn’t exist,” he emphasizes, ensuring that “now all teams lose 20, 25 or 15 games, especially those that play in important leagues.”
“We’re going to have to get used to it”
“Now, these early years, People put their hands on their heads because you lose 12 games. Well, if you look at the Euroleague, the first classified, how many have they lost? 12″, adds Penarroyaassuming that “we are going to have to get used to it because the competition leads you to that.”
Comparing it to the NBA, Penarroya He believes that the change in mentality will have to go further. “When that happens on the other side of the pond, in the NBA, and you see teams that are champions and have three-game losing streaks, nothing happens. And here we go crazy. I think it is changing, but it will have to change more. And we must give less importance to defeat and victory,” he concludes.
