Marcelino assures that the team ‘will have to put in a great amount of effort’ if they are to beat Las Palmas
Villarreal CF’s head coach, Marcelino García Toral, stressed this lunchtime that his team will have to play with the utmost respect and commitment if they want to get the three points in the match against UD Las Palmas tomorrow at the Estadio de la Cerámica (9pm CEST). The Canary Islanders occupy the last place in the standings, but according to Marcelino they have great talent and should have more points on the board.
A large amount of peoples
“We come into the game off the back of a big physical effort, but that’s no excuse. Las Palmas have a similar situation. I think they have an extra day’s rest, but it’s not relevant. We are playing at home and we will have to make the maximum effort. The defeat against Barça hurt us a lot and we want to give our fans something to cheer about.”
Putting in a lot of effort
‘It would be an act of arrogance to think that we are favourites. I’m convinced that we’ll have to put in a big performance to get the three points. We will have to have the right mentality to win, both in defence and attack. Playing against Las Palmas, who haven’t won yet, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.”
The support from the stands
“We need the fans and it is very important to be united. We feel that the fans are with us and they have shown it in all the home games we have played. Against Barça we lost, but we had the ambition to win and we went head to head with them. Hopefully, between our hard work and the backing of the fans, we’ll be able to enjoy a victory at home, which is very important.”
Possible rotations
“All teams have sufficient means to assess the condition of each player and the risk of injury. It’s not absolutely certain, but we do have to base ourselves on that data to avoid injuries. There are players who have a lot of games under their belts and we will have to vary them. Against Las Palmas we will change some of the players, although we will also take risks. We have to focus on this game and try to win it.”
UD Las Palmas
“Every match has the same danger, because the opponent will try to win with their own arguments. I would like to have enough conviction for our players to face the game with even more responsibility than they did against Barça. Las Palmas have players with a lot of quality and should have won several games at the start of the season. Our defensive intensity will be important for Las Palmas to create few chances on goal. From there, we will have to attack. Let’s hope we don’t get confused. To do that, the first step is to have the utmost respect for our opponents and also for ourselves. We have only won one game out of three at home. Winning at La Cerámica is a necessity for us.”
Keeping a clean sheet
“It’s an objective, but it shouldn’t become an obsession. If we defend like we did against Espanyol we are closer to not conceding. It’s clear that our defensive responses were very different to the Barça day. We must be a good team defensively for a large part of the game’.”
