Paco Herrera: "Eric Curbelo brings pace to our defence"

Paco Herrera has been working on shoring up his defence: "I would like to see a much firmer defence as we are up against a team that plays good possession football. They are fearless and move forward quickly. We are much more reliable in attack, although we will be without Araujo and Blum for this game, but these things often crop up. The first thing I am looking for is awareness of situations that may hurt us as the away side. It is very strange, these things don’t happen at home games. It is not a matter of anxiety, it is just lack of concentration", he stated.

As for any changes to the squad in the winter transfer window, Paco Herrera said: "I cannot confirm any new arrivals or departures. One thing is having players in mind and another is actually making it happen. Once the president has communicated this, I have to leave it there. I am just concerned about tomorrow’s game right now. Over time I have also learnt that the best intentions sometimes don’t always come to fruition. When there are other people and agents in the middle it is not that easy", he admitted.

Regarding the absence of Araujo, who is in Argentina for personal reasons, he said: "I was told well in advance that this was going to happen. We were told that he would remain there due to problems with paperwork that I know nothing about".

Herrera warns of the need to be careful, because "our situation is not unique and exclusive to UD Las Palmas. It happens every two or three years with other teams, and similar situations have arisen before. I’ll give you an example: I signed for a great team some years ago, Celta, who had been relegated from the First Division had just managed to avoid dropping down to Segunda B (third tier of Spanish football) in the last game of the season. I give this example to illustrate we need to be very attentive", he concluded.