Jagoba Arrasate and Antonio Sánchez spoke to the media after we beat West Brom 1-0 to end our pre-season trip to England with a 100% winning streak. Find out what the boss and our midfielder had to say below:
“Positive conclusions, but above all we got to know the group. There have been three very different games with good things and things to improve. It's a question of improving little by little.
“The injuries are not serious, but we are in pre-season and we don't want them to get worse. Both Javi and Abdón's injuries were more of a precaution. I hope that next week they will be able to train with the group. We'll see what Raíllo has, but these are normal things when you accumulate training sessions and matches.
“We have to be patient. It's normal for there to be imbalances. We have a way of training, but then there are the matches. Yesterday they played us direct and today it's a team that has worked a lot. They required different things. We need different things to adapt to everything and to grow in the idea, which, as is normal, we're still a long way off, but we're taking steps.
“We have fluid and daily communication with the sporting director and between all of us we are going to try to make the best squad possible. It's true that there may be some departures and some arrivals, but I'm now working with what I have and knowing what we need.
“Samu had a typical pre-season hot flash. We talked about it with him so that it doesn't happen again.
“I want to see the youth players training and playing and that's why they have had minutes in these games. They are in a good division, like the Segunda RFEF, and there they are going to be demanding and they will have to do things well to continue progressing. If they're here, it's for a reason and we want to polish that up a bit.”
Antonio Sanchez
“I've never had the chance to take free-kicks and sometimes shots like that come up and I'll see if I can get some more.
“The new players and those from the reserve team have helped us and have contributed. We are happy with that. As for the results, they have been great and the feelings are positive. It's a big change. The coach wants very different things to what we were doing and we are in the process of adapting and I think the team has adapted well to the change. The only thing left to do is to polish those mistakes that come up in the games.
‘It's physically demanding to go forward, but if you do a good job, you win balls back quickly in the opposition half and we like that too: to play in their half and have options to attack.
“If the team-mates see fit, I'll be happy to wear the armband when it's my turn.
“Arrasate and I had a brief chat and he told me that he liked my ability: being able to go into space, run, press.... it's true that I've adapted to that and I told him that's what I liked and that I was going to give everything he asked me to do to help.”
