New Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone says that he is hopeful of turning his side’s fortunes around.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old was installed at the Vicente Calderon last week after the club parted company with Gregorio Manzano following a dismal start to the season.<\/p>\n
Simeone, who played for Atletico across two different spells between 1994-1997 and 2003-2005, confessed his happiness to return to the capital-city club and noted that he is aware of the hard task that lies ahead.<\/p>\n
“I have come with a lot of hope,” he told reporters upon landing in Madrid. “We need to be calm. We have come here to work.<\/p>\n
“We will do what we always did when we were playing, which is to go match-by-match.<\/p>\n
“There is always hope, calmness and joy, especially joy to return to Atletico. When I left the club, there was one goal, but now we have a different one.<\/p>\n
“We are going to have to work, which is what is most important.”<\/p>\n
Atletico, who currently lie in 10th position in the Liga standings, will travel to Malaga on January 7 in their first match of 2012.<\/p>\n
Los Rojiblancos are through to the Europa League round of 32, where they will tackle Lazio, but have bowed out of the Copa del Rey after losing to Albacete.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone says that he is hopeful of turning his side’s fortunes around. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n