Íñigo Pérez takes responsibility after Villarreal’s defeat by PSG

“When you lose like this, there is nothing else to do but point at the coach,” Íñigo said after Villarreal’s heavy defeat by PSG at La Cerámica. Íñigo Pérez accepted responsibility for the result and said he did not want to make excuses. “This defeat hurts a lot. I take responsibility for what happened. We’ll see if we can move past the bitterness we feel now,” the coach said.

He acknowledged that several factors may have contributed, including mistakes in how to approach the opposition’s game and an inadequate response to the blows the team took. But he placed the main burden on his own decisions. He said his biggest errors had been setting out one idea without managing to carry it out as intended. In his view, the defeat made clear that the team had not been prepared in the right way, whatever his beliefs as a coach.

Íñigo Pérez also spoke about Macià, who had just turned 18 and was facing Vitinha. He said the young player could be proud of his performance and questioned whether a lack of aggression was the issue. In his assessment, the team’s difficulties and the poor game plan had also affected players individually. He described Vitinha as a player who is probably the best defensive midfielder, while indicating that the dressing room’s conversations without cameras would remain private.

The coach connected the team’s performance to his own responsibility rather than placing the weight of the defeat on one player. He acknowledged, however, that he might present the same plan the following day, with some details corrected. For now, he said the team needed to take time to absorb the pain of the defeat instead of looking too far ahead.