Miguel Álvarez believes the team will adapt better to this new start in the second division

Villarreal B head coach Miguel Álvarez appeared at the press conference ahead of the first matchday of LALIGA Hypermotion, in which the Mini Submarine will face Real Zaragoza at La Romareda.

These are the comments made by the Mini Submarine’s coach:

Seventh season with the B team

“I try to be happy and I am happy here. I have a very clear objective: to enjoy my profession, to try to help the youngsters who are in the B team and whose dream is to go to professional football, even though we are already in the second division, to enjoy the process along the way. I have the same enthusiasm or more than when I arrived and, best of all, I want to extend it.”

Pre-season

“Pre-season is always a bit of a lie. It’s about getting the group together, getting to know people, adapting… The pre-season really starts now, because that’s when we’re going to have the whole group, as a lot of the players have had to be with the first team. The positive part is that I haven’t been able to count on them to do the pre-season, but many players have competed with players of a different level. That’s the best pre-season for them. We are happy because it has allowed us to discover young players, that we still have a phenomenal youth academy. For now, I’m very happy with the squad. If I’m not mistaken, out of my seven seasons, it’s the youngest squad I’ve ever had. There is a lot of sense of belonging in the B team, many of them are homegrown and now we want to see them compete.”

B team players in the first team

“If there is one thing that should give us prestige to the coaching staff, it is to be able to have players with that sense of relevance and to train them so that they can make it to the first team. Undoubtedly, if the good ones leave, you weaken yourself and that is the difficulty. Here in every game we play against very important teams. Regardless of which players we have, we’re going to go and compete.”

Filip Jorgensen

“He is a player with incredible qualities and tremendous potential. We have to give him support and trust.”

Real Zaragoza

“We are going to play against a big team, who have made a big investment in the squad. It’s going to be a very complicated and different game to last season. I think the players will be more experienced now and will know how to control the tempo better, but it’s going to be complicated. Despite everything, we’re not going to focus on the opposition, we have to focus on ourselves, because I want the collective growth of the team and the individual growth of the players.”

Keys to the match

“We have to control Real Zaragoza’s attacks both at the start and at the end of the game. Our aim is that the coaching staff don’t have to intervene so much during the game, but that the players are the ones who act more.”

Andrés Ferrari

“He has brutal potential, but we have to see how he adapts during the competition. Now he is adapting to playing with two strikers, for example, because he is used to playing as the only striker. He is a signing that I love, but we have to mark the times and he has a lot of competition in his position, such as Jorge Pascual, Forés and Diego Collado.”