UD Las Palmas’ trainer continued: "We have had to change the squad selection, by bringing in both Benito and Erik to cover for our injured and banned players. Michel will be coming too".
"We have had an internal debate to analyse what went on against Atlético de Madrid, to get our confidence back. The team is doing fine and is really focused. We have the challenge of winning a match away from home before the end of the season. A lot will depend on how the game begins". "I like a lot about Sporting, both with Abelardo and Rubí, unfortunately all their good work hasn’t been reflected in their results and they are in a really tough situation right now. The first few minutes of the match are vital to them too, as they are aware that their situation is not new".
"The concepts and the way of seeing football are not changed over months or even years, but we have a deficit we need to make up on the pitch. There are general issues such as when we are not in possession, which have put us down". "In our last game we only committed four fouls, we are the team that makes the least tackles, so we have to change our players’ mentality when we are not on the ball". "Our mental state is key as we face games, so we can execute our tactics during the match. The work we put in now is the same while our state of mind is different". "Erik might make the starting line-up, but we could also play with a false nine. We are not going to hold back against Gijón, while I hope the team will be back to full strength for the next match against Barcelona".
"Sporting have a lot riding on this match, but we need to go out there and show we mean business and fight for the club. They are sure to attack us from the start but we need to handle that and play intelligently”.
