MENDILIBAR: "THE FIRST GOAL HELPED US AND WE WERE ABLE TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE SPACE"

José Luis Mendilibar appeared before the media following the victory against Real Valladolid. On the events in Zorilla on Sunday, the Sevilla coach offered an honest analysis of the match, happy with the victory but recognising that the opponent was better during certain periods of the match: "The result is deceiving. It looks like we have thrashed them but they played much better than us for 45-60 minutes of the game. We had our chances, but in the first half we were not good at all and they were much better, they won second balls, they were camped in our half and they got shots away, whilst we were not accurate. The goal at the start of the second half helped us and they got nervous, and we made the most of the spaces that they left."  

With regard to what he asked of the players during the break, our man from the Basque Country said that he wanted to change the style of play so that the team got their identity back: "The only thing that we cannot do is play at the back. We did that in the first half and I said to them that we want to play further up the pitch. I said that since I came we have stopped playing at the back which hadn't worked, and we have to keep on playing the way that we have done for the last two months. We have changed something, but haven't changed a lot." 

On his players, he stressed his happiness with the Mexican, Jesús 'Tecatito' Corona: "Gueye doesn't have a big injury, he will be fine for Sunday. We wanted to get Tecatito on so that he could get a taste for being back on the field and it couldn't have gone better, his goal was exceptional. We wanted him to play a bit longer, he didn't get too long in the end but I think that it has got him ready."

To close, he spoke about what awaits at the Sánchez-Pizjuán on Thursday: "It's important that the boys have time to recover for Thursday so that we approach the game in the best shape possible. We know that we are going to be mentally switched on, but we need to be physically ready too."