The Villarreal head coach has warned that it will not be easy to get a win against Granada CF (Sunday, 2pm CET)
Villarreal’s head coach, Marcelino García Toral, has appeared before the media to analyse the upcoming match against Granada CF, corresponding to Matchday 27 of LALIGA EA Sports, which will be played this Sunday, at 2pm CET, at the Estadio de la Cerámica.
Raúl Albiol’s injury
“Raúl will be out. He has a muscular problem that will keep him out of the competition for several matchdays. We don’t think he will be able to play until after the break. The rest of the squad is the same as before. There are no more absentees and no more additions to the group. The long-term injured players are progressing well, but they still have a few weeks ahead of them.”
We have always been calm and confident
“We were calm and confident. We knew the team was playing well and we had good feelings. The problem was not the competitive level but the results, which were not in line with what the team was transmitting. The difference in San Sebastian was efficiency. We had it and our opponents didn’t. We played a great game against a great team. The dynamic and the mood, and also the attitude, was very good.”
The concern was at the back
“Goals are what define games and give us confidence. We are one of the teams that score the most goals in the competition. We don’t have any problems there. We can be more or less accurate on a particular day, but what worried us was the goals conceded. We are the team with the third highest number of goals conceded in the division. That was the focus of our attention. Since the Las Palmas game, we’ve been conceding a lot and conceding very few. We have reversed the previous logic. We have to be able to maintain that because it will make us competitive and we will get more victories.”
Work on efficiency in finishing?
“It’s possible to work on it, but we won’t improve much by doing so. Success and efficiency come and go. At the end of the day, players go through periods, but they all have a certain number that they move around more or less every season. The whole squad can score goals and contribute to this work.”
Options at centre-back
“We have three options, so we will choose two. Right now we have Raúl out through injury and Jorge through suspension. We still have Aïssa, Yerson and Eric. Two of those three will play. We’re trying to work as a team so that, regardless of who plays, we know what we have to do. When we don’t have the ball, we have to help out defensively and when we do, we have to be able to attack.”
About the opposition
“Granada have changed a lot in the second half of the season. They’ve brought in ten players and seven have left. They also have a different head coach. They are a dynamic team and they run a lot. Since they’ve changed coach, they’ve had very positive results. They are not translating their good work into results, but they are a team capable of scoring goals against big teams. We have a lot of caution and respect for this opponent. We can’t think that we’re going to win because we’re coming off the back of a victory. We would be making a mistake. There will be no easy situations. They’re going to demand our level and it’s going to be difficult to get a win.”
Struggling to win at home
“We know what it would mean to beat Granada. To get a win again at our home ground, where we really want to get three points again, which has been very difficult for us this year, and give our fans something to cheer about.”
No rotations conditioned by Europe…yet
“I have never looked down. At no time. If you do that you transmit fear and we have never had that. The attitude of the players has always been very good and we know the capacity they have. From there, you try to be competitive and try to win games. We will put in the players we think will give us a chance to win. It’s more likely that we’ll rotate against Betis than now, as we’re coming off the back of a week without playing. The next game is in four days’ time. There will be some changes, but not conditioned by the next game. Against Betis we will make a different assessment.”
The mentality
“Our idea is to win and move up the table. We have no other thoughts. We only give maximum importance to the most immediate game and we don’t think beyond that. We believe that this is the right mentality for victories to come.”
Olympique de Marseille
“Against Marseille we are going to play the game. I hadn’t heard about the sanction. It’s a very nice ground and they live football very much. I’d like the whole pitch to be full. It’s the normal development of such a beautiful sport as football. We like full stadiums.”
The timetable for the match against Granada
“What are we going to tell people? Families eat at two o’clock. I’ve been head coach at Villarreal for 14 days now. And five of them at that time. We are familiar with it. It’s a time when you don’t see a good football spectacle and it puts teams on the same footing. We accept it and we are going to fight to get a second consecutive victory for the first time this season.”
