Alvaro Arbeloa spoke to the media after Real Madrid\u2019s 2-0 win over Real Oviedo. He was asked about Kylian Mbappe\u2019s comments about him being the fourth-choice striker, to which he said: \u201cI wish I had four strikers. I don\u2019t know what to say. I don\u2019t have four strikers, and I didn\u2019t say that. He probably didn\u2019t understand me; I\u2019m not really sure what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on whether there is a problem between them<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t play him, he can\u2019t play. I decide; I\u2019m the coach. I spoke with him earlier, and I don\u2019t know how he might have interpreted it. He shouldn\u2019t have started today because it\u2019s not a matter of life or death. We have a match on Sunday, and he\u2019ll definitely be the starting striker. Seven days later, he\u2019ll have earned his place as the starting striker. I decide who plays. I understand that whoever isn\u2019t playing isn\u2019t happy. I can understand that he\u2019s not happy, but it\u2019s a decision based on the circumstances. I didn\u2019t want to take any risks. It was the most logical, common-sense thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on Mbappe saying they lost their structure<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019d like, you can show me the press conference and we can discuss it. I think it would be good if he thought that; he\u2019s probably scored many more goals in the first half of the season than in the second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on Mbappe wanting to start<\/p>\n
\u201cI said that a player who couldn\u2019t even make the bench four days ago should come on in the second half. He\u2019ll start on Sunday. Gonzalo deserved to play today; I understand that those who don\u2019t start aren\u2019t happy. But as long as I\u2019m in this position, I\u2019m going to make the decisions. If they like it, fine; if not, they can wait until next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on whether this is normal<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t only happened with Kylian, but with many other players as well. These situations arise due to circumstances; they\u2019ve been different for me than with other coaches at the club. I have a clear conscience, and I\u2019m going to do the best I can. I don\u2019t care; I\u2019ll do what I think is best until the very last day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on Mbappe getting booed<\/p>\n
\u201cI always ask for the support of my players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on how they will fix Vinicius and Mbappe getting booed<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019ll do it; they\u2019re capable. They\u2019re two pillars, the most decisive players, and the club has high hopes for them. The fans are demanding, and when they return to playing like they know how, the applause will return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on whether his players are \u2018ungrateful\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect from my players what I\u2019ve given them; I know how players are. I know how they think, especially players of this caliber. I\u2019m capable of understanding everything. I wouldn\u2019t change a single thing I\u2019ve done or said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbeloa on whether he is \u2018suffering\u2019 at the club<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can never suffer at Real Madrid. It\u2019s not a comfortable situation for us; we know the demands of this club, and another bad year is piling up, making things even more difficult. We have a huge responsibility; we have to go to Sevilla, and they deserve our full effort until the very end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I say? He\u2019s been a fantastic teammate, we\u2019ve won so many things together, and he has a wonderful family. He\u2019s one of the most talented players in Spanish football, and we\u2019ve all enjoyed watching him. It\u2019s hard to say, but as a person, he\u2019s just as talented as he is as a player. It\u2019s been an honor to play alongside him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alvaro Arbeloa spoke to the media after Real Madrid\u2019s 2-0 win over Real Oviedo. He was asked about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[64725,403,99],"class_list":["post-643978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-real-madrid-cf-la-liga","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}