Athletic’s uneasy start: Terzic faces the break under pressure

Athletic’s league start hasn’t matched expectations and the upcoming international break brings a clear workload for head coach Terzic. As MARCA reports, the club has posted back-to-back draws at San Mamés versus Elche and Alavés, gathering only 8 points out of 18 in the early stretch. At home, after four matches, the record reads: one win over Atlético Madrid, one loss to Sevilla, and two draws that have slowed the momentum sparked earlier.

Break-time to recalibrate

The internal message is direct: the team didn’t reach its best level in the most recent games and needs to respond. Laporte put it plainly when he said, “We haven’t shown our best version. Let’s see if after the break things get better,” adding that “small details make the difference,” in quotes collected by MARCA.

The situation is also shaped by the schedule. According to MARCA, Athletic now enter a long period without competition until their next match on October 10, when they travel to Vallecas. The run-up is complicated by international duty: five players are unavailable from Lezama due to national-team commitments. Even so, the bigger concern is trend. After earlier wins away at Celta and Atlético, performance has dipped in the games against sides that disrupted Athletic’s build-up and questioned their attacking efficiency.

FIFA window and a tough return

The club is aware that it will need to intensify during preparation in the middle of the tournament created by the FIFA window. MARCA also notes that the immediate return brings a demanding run: Athletic will play three consecutive away league matches against Rayo, Valencia, and Levante, followed by home games versus Getafe and Real Madrid. With that in mind, confidence in a change of dynamic is the focus. Jauregizar summed it up by saying, “I trust that with the help of the coach we’ll find the key to fix it.”