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Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan has backed manager Javier Aguirre after reports in Spain linked them with a move for former Valencia coach and current Benfica manager Quique Sanchez Flores.

Despite earning Atletico Champions League qualification for the first time in 22 years, Aguirre has come under pressure following successive Liga defeats to Sevilla, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

But following a 1-1 Champions League draw to Liverpool at the Vicente Calderon, Forlan expressed solidarity for the Mexican.

"We know what we can give and we know that the coach also knows what we can do. One performance changes nothing," he told Spanish news agency EFE after the result. "This is a club where the tiniest piece of news gets blown up all out of proportion. It is normal that people talk. There always has to be talk about something.

"Obviously what happens is always related to how we perform on the pitch, but we're not preoccupying ourselves with this worry. We know that it is he who is the boss and we know what he is managing to do at the club.

"We're really happy with him and we hope to get some good results to know that neither him nor us any are worse when we lose or better when we win.

"We are calm, this is all normal. We are not the ones who decide the future of the coach, the directors do that."

Aguirre first came under fire when the team lost 2-1 at Valladolid. They won back-to-back games afterwards, but slumped to three losses on the trot, including a humiliating 6-1 thrashing at Barcelona.

"If the team doesn't perform well, then we are a bad team," the former Manchester United and Villarreal man continued.

"If the team performs well, then we are going to be champions. And if things change for the worse again, then all the good work means nothing.

"And somebody always has to be the focus of the talk. If it's not a player, then it's a coach who will be the first to be on the back pages of the red-tops."

Reda Maher / Eurosport