Borja Jiménez looks to the sky, frustrated by something that happened during the match. LOF
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Another bitter taste for Borja Jiménez. And with this Saturday’s defeat for Sporting Gijón in Burgos , the number of times the manager has been left with a bad taste in his mouth after leading the team this season is countless.
“It was a very even match and quite ugly for the spectator,” the coach described. “We had some clear chances to take the lead, but our handling of the final minutes cost us,” Jiménez continued in his explanation of what happened yesterday at El Plantío.
Fer Niño’s goal in stoppage time stung a lot, although the coach felt the final result wasn’t fair because “I don’t think they were better and we ended up losing in an avoidable situation. It’s a culmination of what the season has been like,” he explained.
The question about the team’s immediate future soon arose. With seven matches remaining, Sporting has effectively ended any hope of finishing in the top six. “It’s become much more complicated. Sixth place could be eleven points behind, it’s difficult, but above all else, we have to focus on beating Cádiz on Sunday,” he emphasized.
Jiménez’s biggest problem is that the team might fall apart, but he repeated on more than one occasion that “we deserve to compete with dignity and for it to be seen that the things we do well are reflected on the field.”
Unlike last Monday, when Borja didn’t give up when questioned about the team’s chances of reaching the playoffs, the coach acknowledged that “talking about the ‘play-off’ now makes no sense after the defeat.”
He doesn’t want anyone to get complacent, but he’s realistic about the situation with seven games remaining. He explained the reasons why the team is stuck in mid-table: “The goal was very avoidable. And that’s a lack of experience because you have to know how to play all kinds of games, and it’s clear we’re lacking in many areas to close out games and win them. It’s an analysis we made some time ago. We weren’t able to stop these situations, as we saw again against Burgos.”
If there was one thing he seemed convinced of yesterday, it was that his players would give their all until the very end. “We have to defend this shirt, which is much more important than a playoff,” he pointed out.
He also had time to talk about what the next Sporting needs to be. “We are aware of where we can succeed and fail tactically, technically, and structurally. We will begin working on that,” he said, referring to what will be his first full-time project in Gijón.
On the other hand, the referee was not well-received by either the home or away fans. Jiménez made this clear yesterday with his analysis of the refereeing: “It was the ‘retro’ matchday, and we went back 20 years without VAR or anything like that. Although it neither benefited nor harmed us, we’ll all have the same feeling about the refereeing.”
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