MENDILIBAR: "WE RAN LESS THAN THE OPPONENT"

José Luis Mendilibar did not want to sugarcoat this evening's defeat to Deportivo Alavés: "Not just in the second half, the whole match was a disaster. We did not play well at any point, but sometimes our quality gave us opportunities in front of goal. However, at the end of the day if you do not run, nothing happens. It is not as though things did not go our way despite making our best efforts, it's just that we ran less than our opponents, which makes it hard to get anything out of the game." 

Asked about the team's progress after the match, Mendilibar said that "progress doesn't come from one or two matches. Each match is a unique story. If you play well in two games that doesn't mean you will play well in the third. You have to be mentally prepared and today were not well-prepared mentally to compete. The opposition played well directly and won the second balls. They got into our area and we could not do that, defending poorly further up the pitch. If players don't track back, it is very difficult for those at the back."

When asked about Girona, he was clear: "We cannot reflect too much on the match. We have to think about ourselves and what we have to do. Nothing else. We cannot just think about the three points... we are going to try to do things well and work things out from there because three points will not fall from the sky." On the subject of Rakitic and Acuña's half-time substitutions, he confirmed that "[former] was a tactical decision, whereas the [latter] felt some discomfort so couldn't carry on."