Manolo Jiménez: "We are going to take the Cup very seriously"
"We are going to take the Cup very seriously. I really like this competition. I will be making a few changes, but we don’t have some players for the league and others for the Cup, they are all UD Las Palmas players. We will go out there to get a good resu
The UD Las Palmas trainer has made several changes for tomorrow’s cup clash against Rayo Majadahonda: "There will be changes made for the Cup. We need to show we have depth in the squad. Everyone is working hard and deserve a chance to play. The Cup is another competition which is important, we need to take it very seriously, although we know our main goal is the league. But I really like the Cup and so do the players. We will try to do our very best", he stressed.
As for the possibility of goalscorer Rubén Castro being in the starting line-up, he said: "He is a highly important player for us. Everyone knows how hard it is to score goals, and we need to protect him. Is it a good idea to have a game off to avoid injury?. You never know. There are players who injure themselves reading the newspaper while others never get injured".
Jiménez recognises that Rayo Majadahonda are the surprise team this year and are on a good run. "Rayo are a surprise package. Their players are bubbling right now. If we don’t play to our strengths, they will make things tough for us", he admitted.
When asked about Sergio Araujo’s recovery from injury, he said: "We all thought Araujo would be recovering more quickly. Everyone’s different. Before he got injured he was our most in form player. Not only did we lose him to injury, we have also lost time in getting him back to fitness. The doctors say they have his injury under control”.
"Without our fans there is nothing to play for. I hope people come along and make the Estadio Gran Canaria a fortress. We rely on our fans. We need to get them excited again. We all need to fight together to get back up to the first division", the trainer concluded.
