La Liga - Atletico appoint Sanchez Flores

Eurosport - Fri, 23 Oct 22:45:00 2009

Atletico Madrid have agreed to appoint Quique Sanchez Flores as coach until the end of the season.

FOOTBALL Benfica coach Quique Sanchez Flores, who agreed to step down after a disappointing season saw them finish third in Portugal - 0

Earlier in the day, they sacked Abel Resino from the post after a poor start to their campaign.

Atletico are 15th in La Liga with only one win from their first seven games and are rooted to the foot of Champions League Group D without a win or a goal after being hammered 4-0 at Chelsea on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old Sanchez Flores, a former Real Madrid and Valencia defender who was also capped by Spain, is to be presented at the Calderon on Monday morning.

Resino's assistant Santi Denia will be in charge of the team for the visit of Real Mallorca in La Liga on Saturday.

Sanchez Flores guided promoted Getafe to a respectable 13th place in their first ever top-flight campaign in the 2004/05 season before taking the helm at Valencia.

He led his former club to third and fourth place finishes over the next two seasons but was sacked three months into the 2007/08 campaign after a string of poor results.

Last season he steered Benfica to third place in the Portuguese league before stepping down.

His conservative tactics will be important as he is taking over a side with the worst defensive record in La Liga, having conceded 17 goals in seven games.

At an earlier news conference, Resino defended his record after eight months as coach.

"I remain convinced that a couple of good results will change all of this," he said.

The former Atletico goalkeeper had replaced Javier Aguirre in February and engineered a late surge to grab fourth place in the league and a slot in the Champions League playoff round.

Although they saw off Panathinaikos 5-2 to make the group stages in August, the team have struggled since then.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 8 of 8

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  1. Spalletti would be a fair choice considering he has­ enjoyed reasonable success with Roma the last few­ seasons, and that without quality players like Aguero­ and Forlan - though he'll need to pinch a few of­ his old defenders in January if they want to turn­ things around - pity that Laudrup said no, though I­ don't know if he would survive the internal­ pressure at Atletico ..... and where has Roberto­ Mancini disappeared to ???

    From thomas, on Fri 23 Oct 9:22PM

  2. The problem is Mun C is that a good coach should have a­ squad of entirely his only choice of players after all­ these years in charge. If the players are bad which is­ highly questionable it has to be the coaches fault.

    From mgh0302, on Fri 23 Oct 8:33PM

  3. Surprised he made this far but athletico madrid would­ have probably conceded goals against portsmouth how bad­ their defence was.

    Unless a good manager comes in for­ them and turns their fortune there is going to be a­ decent bunch of players for sell in January.

    From lopezmaxi92, on Fri 23 Oct 7:44PM

  4. mun c a wa^ker thumbs up or a p.rick thumbs down

    From bigbollocks_uk_uk, on Fri 23 Oct 7:30PM

  5. too bad he didn't have enough money to buy decent­ players

    From ryanho0001, on Fri 23 Oct 6:49PM

  6. THUMBS UP

    From Derrick, on Fri 23 Oct 6:05PM

  7. A.Madrid = Poor Coach, Good Players
    Liverpool = Good­ Coach, Poor Players
    Agree [thumbs up]
    Disagree [thumbs­ down]

    From mun c, on Fri 23 Oct 5:39PM

  8. Athletico need a stable time and to get rid of the­ shirkers.

    From iancampbell11, on Fri 23 Oct 5:02PM
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