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González: "We have to be patient"
The coach speaks ahead of the meeting with Villarreal
As RCD Espanyol move into February looking to return to winning ways, coach Manolo González has set his sights on Monday night's game against Villarreal as an opportunity to pick up a much-needed three points.
"Our aim is to recover our strengths. One of those, for example, is keeping clean sheets. That's fundamental," he said in his pre-match press conference.
For the Espanyol coach, in recent weeks "those little things that were going our way before, are now going against us."
"Against Villarreal, we have to compete at our highest level, because they have one of the four best squads in LaLiga. It will be tough, but we're determined to go for the three points."
"One of the biggest keys is staying calm. That means me, first of all, and then the players. They have to give their best. I already warned that a bad run could come, and now we have to keep our feet on the ground and get back to competing at our highest level."
He also summarised the current situation by stating, “We need to remain calm and understand that when things don't go our way immediately, we have to be patient. We have 34 points, we're in sixth place, and we want to get back to how we were doing before.”
González insists that, right now, “we need to start winning again and reach 42 points as soon as possible. We have to achieve our primary objective before we can think about anything else. We need to focus on this and on the spirit we've had all year to get back to our best form. We're a good side away from home, and we need to continue in that vein to keep improving. Perhaps what we've done in the first half of the season is extraordinary, and some people want to see it as normal.”
Finally, he confirmed that neither Terrats nor Romero will play against Villarreal, due to their loan clauses in place with their parent club, and that Ngonge, the recent winter transfer window signing, “is a player who can play in several positions. He's ready to make his debut.”