Pedro Martínez: “I am no one to ask for patience”

Pedro Martinezcoach of real Madrid of basketball, stated that there is “no one to ask for patience” after the start of the Euroleague of his team, which has lost the first three games and now opens at home in the competition against Partizan Belgrade.

“I am no one to ask for patience. What I ask is to work day to day, do things with effort and that we are focused on doing the things that depend on us as best as possible,” he said this Wednesday at the press conference prior to the clash against the Serbian team.

Martínez assured that he likes “the mentality of the players”: “They are being positive; I don’t see them especially nervous, I see them worried and responsible. I like that they are trying to defend better and that they are aware that we have to improve. There are positive things and things to improve, but if we had wonalso”.

“We are at the beginning of the season and the results cannot determine everything. I understand that the fans are more or less happy depending on whether they win or lose, the results are there and we cannot put a blindfold on ourselves, but our work has to be independent of the results. We must have self-criticism and the ability to strive to improve, but without thinking that losing everything is a disaster or winning everything is sensational.. Even losing, there have been positive things,” he said.

The coach called to “not think about the above”, acknowledged that “they would like to be in a better qualifying situation” although it should not matter where they come from, and stated that they face the debut in the Movistar Arena “with enthusiasm and also with a lot of responsibility”, wanting to improve several things such as “continuity in the game”, being “a little more regular in good moments”.

The Catalan coach indicated that his team will have to defend “very well” and that their rival is a “very physical and tremendously aggressive team,” so in attack his players will have to offer “a good response against their defense.”

“This is the Euroleague, you can win and you can lose. Our fans and the enthusiasm to win are in favor, but they are going to have the same enthusiasm and the same effort. “We have to be prepared to give a good response to what happens,” he said.

On the other hand, he does not hide that he has had to make adjustments: “You get to know the players more and you see that there are things that don’t suit them as much or that they are not so comfortable with. As a coach, my responsibility is to seek the best possible collective performanceand for that I have to think about what we can vary.

He also referred to the rival coach, the also Spanish Joan Peñarroya: “I have all the admiration for Joan Penarroya. He was my player many years ago and I have a personal appreciation and the utmost professional respect for him; “He’s a very good coach.”