Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate was full of praise for Pedri Gonzalez after their 1-0 defeat against Barcelona in La Liga matchday 33. The former Osasuna coach believes that the former Las Palmas midfielder dominates the midfield like few others in his memory.
Mallorca coach Jagoba Arraste highlighted that the saves of his goalkeeper Leo Roman “kept his team alive until the end” in Tuesday’s La Liga match at Montjuic against Barcelona, which was decided by Dani Olmo’s goal (1-0).
“We must congratulate the players for their effort. Today’s match is difficult to score. It was a decent game, we held on until the end. Leo kept us in the game until the end. When you’re a goal down, you always have the chance to equalise, but it didn’t happen,” summed up the coach.
Arrasate explained that Mallorca’s plan in attack was to find Sergi Darder “unmarked” and to link up with the wingers, something they achieved in the first few minutes, but they were unsuccessful in their finishing. “In the beginning of the match, we found the spaces well, but we didn’t finish well. In the second half, Raillo’s chance was very clear. To get something out of these fields, we have to be clinical and, today, we were not,” he commented.
The coach considered that the team complied with the game plan during the first 20 minutes, in which they “defended well”, but admitted that Barca outplayed them “in many moments”. “There are moments when you do what you can. They keep sinking you and, in the end, we end up very tired,” he added.
Arrasate revealed that Abdon Prats seems to have suffered “a pretty important tear” and did not want to confirm whether Leo Roman will be the starting goalkeeper from now on. “We have two great goalkeepers and we thought Leo could have a good game today,” he replied.
The coach pointed out that Dani Olmo’s goal at the start of the second half changed “the match” and praised Pedro Gonzalez ‘Pedri’: “When you see Pedri, you analyze him and you enjoy from your TV. But then you see him against you and you want him to stop. I haven’t seen a midfielder like this in a long time”.