Osasuna Coach Lamis on 2-5 Defeat to Alaves: We Made Too Many Mistakes

After Osasuna suffered a 2-5 away defeat to Alaves, their head coach Lamis said the team made too many mistakes at Mendizorroza Stadium, which ultimately led to the heavy loss.

Lamis gave a negative assessment of Osasuna's performance. Speaking about the defeat, he said: “If you look at how the goals came about, the defeat could even be considered reasonable.” He added: “We made too many mistakes, especially in areas on the pitch where we needed to be more decisive. In La Liga, these things will eventually be punished. Our feeling was that even when we were 0-2 down, the match was still playable. In fact, we had discussed creating more crossing opportunities, and in the first minute of the second half we did get close to the opponent, but then we made another mistake by leaving a player free, giving him too much space. This was not a good defensive performance inside the box, and then more problems followed.”

When analyzing the goals conceded, Lamis said: “The first goal came from a very simple attack by the opponent. The second goal was a mistake that can happen, and Catena normally does not make that kind of error. The third goal was indeed a great finish, but it came from a throw-in where we did not apply pressure. We left a player unmarked, and that player was also a forward who should have been restricted more. Finally, we defended two wide crosses very poorly. There was no challenge and no marking, and the opponent took advantage of those opportunities. We gave a very strong opponent in these situations too many chances.”

Regarding the team's usual defensive stability, Lamis said: “We will find this stability again.” He added: “We are usually very good in this area, but perhaps we concentrated all the mistakes we should have made over 15 rounds into one match. Normally, this type of situation would not happen so often, and we must be more rigorous in this regard. This match can bring us back down to earth. If anyone had become overconfident, they should now wake up. Tomorrow we have to continue working and prepare for the match against Espanyol.” He also stressed: “The team must recover mentally. I will take responsibility for this, reset everyone, and learn from it.”

Finally, Lamis concluded: “Normally, for an opponent to create scoring chances, they have to do many things well. In the previous three matches, Sergio Herrera hardly had to make any saves. But today he was barely able to complete any saves, because those balls were very difficult for a goalkeeper to deal with. Today we saw something we had not seen before, something that had not happened previously. We must reflect on it and correct it, because this situation could happen again.”