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González: "It's up to us to respond on the pitch"
The coach holds a pre-match press conference before the game against Getafe CF
Manolo González talked in a press conference on Friday, previewing the LaLiga game against Getafe.
“The team will go out there and give everything to win, but that has to be done with a cool head and by competing at the highest level. It's up to us to respond on the pitch.”
“When the game has gone according to plan, Espanyol have been better than the opposition, but we also have to take into account the negative details that cause us to lose. That's also part of football. For example, this year we've gone down to ten men twice, and it's very difficult to hold on when you have a man less. We've seen that in recent days.”
"We can only keep working. The players are convinced of what they have to do. The team can't afford to collapse, either mentally or in terms of their performance, and that hasn't happened. I analyze everything objectively. I'm a person with mental strength and persistence. You can't turn things around by getting nervous or driving yourself crazy. We have to get back to winning, and sometimes you maybe do that on the day you least deserve it.”
Regarding Getafe, he commented that "they've strengthened considerably in the winter transfer window, which has given them a boost, and it's worked out well for them. They've got fresh blood, and they're doing well in this second half of the season.”
For the coach, “football has many factors that determine the outcome of a game. Some teams find it harder to turn things around than others. We need to be very clear-headed to rectify what we're doing wrong.”
He also underlined that victory this Saturday would allow the team "to reach 40 points, which brings us closer to safety. It would mean that we'd go into the international break more relaxed, but what we really want is to feel like we did in the first half of the season, for the fans to be as happy as they were then.”