Gary Neville insists fans did not influence Valencia tactics against Atletico Madrid
Monday 7 March 2016 10:55, UK
Valencia coach Gary Neville rued a "disappointing" defeat to Atletico Madrid but insisted his tactical changes were not influenced by the fans.
Neville's side slipped to a 3-1 home loss in La Liga on Sunday, former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres putting Atletico 2-1 up in the second half before forcing the foul which lead to Aderlan Santos being sent off shortly before Yannick Carrasco sealed victory.
Neville, explaining why he changed his mind several times over whether or not to bring on Alvaro Negredo, admitted he had not initially noticed that Santos had been dismissed.
But the former Manchester United captain said his substitutions were a collective decisions - and not swayed by reaction from the stands.
"I didn't know Santos had been sent off initially; Alvaro was already coming on, then Alvaro told me Santos was coming off, sent off," Neville said at his post-match press conference.
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"I then said to [Aymen] Abdennour: 'Get changed, you're coming on. The coaching staff called me back, said: 'Let's gamble, go with three at the back'. We decided to gamble and we changed our mind again.
"We went back to the original decision because we decided with the coaching staff by drawing out how we could play - it definitely wasn't because of the fans.
"From my point of view, maybe sticking with the original decision might have been right."
Neville thought his side played well for certain spells in the game but were made to pay for individual mistakes.
"Things didn't quite go for us tonight. I'm disappointed, probably the most disappointed I've been after a game," he added.
"We were playing against one of the best teams in Europe tonight by the way, and for 70 minutes we gave them one of the hardest games they've had. The second goal and the sending off changed the game, that was my assessment of it.
"We were in the game and in the last 20 it went away from us. I don't like repeat mistakes and it feels the same. I felt we could have got something out of the game."
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