Diego Simeone was highly critical of Atlético Madrid after their defeat to Athletic Club at San Mamés.

“We’re still in the process of building this team, and obviously we’re going to go through some difficult moments. The truth is, we started the game very well, pretty much as expected. But those five minutes today were a real wake-up call. We have to react and address the things we need to improve,” the Argentine coach said after Athletic scored twice in quick succession at the start of the second half, in the 46th and 48th minutes.

Clearly frustrated in front of the media, Simeone pointed out that Atlético had “important chances” to score and that he saw “personality” from his team, but admitted they went through “two minutes without enough intensity.”

“After that, it became a completely different game, much more complicated and difficult because the opposition was much better organized defensively. Athletic deserved to win,” Simeone added.

“The main responsibility lies with the coaching staff because we weren’t able to give the players the tools they needed at the start of the second half, and they weren’t able to solve it themselves,” he said.

Simeone also had praise for Athletic, describing them as “an important team that will be fighting for the top positions.”

“Terzic has very clear ideas and he’s getting them across to the team. They defended very well in a low block, and once they did that, there wasn’t much we could do,” he said.

Julián Álvarez came off the bench in the second half at San Mamés following the saga surrounding his failed move to Barcelona. After the final whistle, however, the Argentine did not join the other substitutes for the usual conditioning drills on the pitch.

The exercises are part of the team’s routine for balancing players’ workloads, and Simeone was asked about Álvarez’s absence from the speed drills.

The question clearly irritated the Atlético coach.

“Are you seriously asking me that? I have nothing to say,” Simeone replied.