Approaching the game
“We’re in good form, we’re doing a lot of things right at the moment and we’ll need to keep doing that tomorrow if we’re to take something from the game. Atlético Madrid are the reigning league champions, they’ve got great players and a coach that we know all about. Next Wednesday, they’re going to play in the Champions League against Manchester United and they’ve beaten us each time since we made it back up to LaLiga. We respect them but we hope that tomorrow will be the day that our results against them change.”
“Confidence helps when getting ready for a game like this, as does looking at the league table. Although that can be a bit misleading as they’re not a team that will play out from the back and allow us to press them high up the pitch, they don’t try to draw you out so that they can then play direct balls forward. So it’s not easy to press them. But we’ll try to do it and we’ll play to our strengths.”
“We know that we have to be at our best. That’s all we’re thinking about. They might not be in the best form right now but we know what they’re capable of. We have to set our standards high to make it difficult for them. We have to play well no matter what.”
“There’s always room for improvement. It’s true that we’ve been defending well, we’ve had four clean sheets in the last five games and different players are scoring goals. But you can always improve. The second half against Sevilla wasn’t as good as the first, the second half against Rayo Vallecano wasn’t as good as the first. We always try to keep these good periods of play going for as long as we can. But we’ll be up against opponents who’ll want to stop us from doing exactly that.”
“We’ll have to be nearly perfect. I think we’ve been starting games really well, not only in Vallecas but also against Sevilla, even in Vigo, where we lost, and against Cádiz. We need to keep that up and play high up the pitch. As always against this type of team, the key will be to not make mistakes. We gave away a soft penalty against Sevilla and could’ve lost 1-0. These teams don’t waste such opportunities. Hopefully we can take the game to them, not make any mistakes and keep being as efficient as we have been recently.”
Atlético’s struggles
“If you analyse Atlético Madrid, they’re conceding more goals than in recent years. But are teams opening them up more? Not really. At the minute, every time the opposition shoots, they score. That’s the way things are going just now. Let’s see if we can play on that. We need to attack them, we need to get men in the box, crosses into the box, take shots at goal, make the most of set plays and corners. That’s how we need to play the game.”
“Sevilla (Osasuna’s last opponents at El Sadar) and Atleti are equally tough opponents but are totally different teams. I think Sevilla had spells in which they had more than 70% of the ball, their game is based on possession and they want to impose themselves on you that way. Atlético Madrid are more direct, they play more vertically. I think that’s where we’ve struggled against them in recent years. They’re a team who are similar to us but when they’re on their game, they’re a little bit better than us at everything.”
“They’ve generally found it easier to win at El Sadar than at the Wanda. But this is the first time we’re going to play against them in front of our fans, which is an important factor. I also think that we’re competing better and better against these kinds of teams, we’ve shown that we can put up a fight. You have to analyse previous games to see how you can do better against them because there have been a lot of games and they’ve won them all. Although no two games or moments are the same. I think that now we’re in a position where we can say that we’ve got the tools to compete with them.”
“Given the opposition and the fact that we’re playing at home, it would be a really special win.”
Home struggles despite El Sadar atmosphere
“The fans are excited about coming along to El Sadar and we want to make them happy. I think we’ve got room for improvement. We beat Cádiz, we drew against Sevilla and we want to keep going on the right track. It’d be great to get a home win tomorrow against such a strong team.”
“When El Sadar is 85% full, the 85% who are there give 100%, unlike in some other stadiums. We really appreciate their support and when it’s 100% full, it’ll be even better. There’ll be a great atmosphere, the fans will be up for it, they helped us a lot when Sevilla had us pinned back, especially in the second half. We hope to send the 85% home happy tomorrow.”
“When we’re below par, they let us know but when we’re on our game, they show their appreciation. That’s how it is at El Sadar.”
Performance at Rayo
“In addition to defending well and pushing high up the pitch, I especially liked how aggressive the team was in the opposition half. Our midfielders got forward into dangerous areas on lots of occasions, our wingers got into the box. That’s something we sometimes lack. The system we play gives us solidity but sometimes we need to be more threatening in the opposition half and penalty area. Not just the forwards but also the wingers and midfielders. I liked that. We’ll need that (against Atlético) and to defend well too. And when they do manage to get the better of us, we’ll have to hope that (goalkeeper) Sergio (Herrera) keeps up his good recent form. He hasn’t had much to do but he’s done really well when called upon.”
Rubén García’s fitness
“We’ve had Rubén wrapped in cotton wool throughout the week but he did a fitness test today and feels good. We’ll see how he is tomorrow but he should be fit to play.”
Other team news
“Jesús Areso is the only player unavailable. It’s great to have Kike Barja back and also Aridane, who’s been out for longer but is feeling good. I’ve got what every manager wants – all his players available for selection.”
“When something’s working, managers tend not to make many or even any changes. We’ll see how the players are but the most logical thing would be to leave things the way they are.”
Managing players who aren’t getting minutes
“The players know themselves what the situation is. They know what the manager is thinking and the form their teammates’ are in. They know that when something is working, the manager won’t make many changes. But they’re doing what they need to do. They’re training well and there’s the opportunity to make five substitutions in every game. Before it was just 11 against 11 but I’ve said for a while now that it’s more like 15 or 16-a-side these days. Substitutes are very important too and luckily the ones who haven’t been playing are pushing hard to get into the team, which is great for me.”
Survival already assured?
“We’re only thinking about tomorrow’s game. We’re in a good position but nothing has been decided mathematically. Our number one objective is to secure our place in the league for next season. Then hopefully there’ll be time to think about other things. We’ve gone down the road of thinking of each match as an opportunity and it’s going well. Tomorrow is no different.”