Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz has rushed to the defence of under-pressure boss Ernesto Valverde.
The Basques have made a disastrous start to the 2014-15 La Liga campaign, having won just once in seven games, and are currently in the bottom three.
However, Iraizoz refuses to heap the blame on Valverde and says it is the players who are the ones to have lost games.
“Valverde has done enough in his career. He works with us every day and supports us at all times. It is us who are not winning games,” he told a Press conference.
The 33-year-old, who turned in a magnificent performance against Real Madrid at the weekend despite conceding five times, recalled that just one month ago everyone was saying the team was doing well.
“We had qualified for the group stages of the Champions League after everything that happened last season, so to criticise Ernesto now is unfair and it is not deserved.
“We haven’t been winning football matches and that makes some of us question ourselves. It’s clear the pressure we were under before is not the same as right now and it shows itself in different ways.
“Our opponents have easily overcome us and obviously when that happens you must make changes, or try to correct certain aspect of your game.
“We need to get back to what we were doing before or do something else for the good of the team,” he confessed.
