Sevilla FC's Pablo Machín in the press conference
First team

PABLO MACHÍN: 'VALLADOLID AREN'T AS GLAMOROUS AS OTHER TEAMS, BUT THEY'RE VERY CAPABLE'

23/11/2018
The Sevilla manager spoke 48 hours ahead of the team's return to competitive competition: 'Let's hope that the break hasn't done us any harm and that everyone's in top condition'

Pablo Machín gave a press conference this Friday ahead of the visit of Real Valladolid this Sunday. However, the Soria native began by speaking about the new member of the club's Hall of Fame, Pablo Blanco: 'It was, apart from being well-deserved, very moving. Pablo's calmness surprised me because even though I've only known him for a short while, I would like to be able to keep my composure as he did.' And from one historic player to another, such as Jesús Navas: 'Speaking of Pablo and his work with the academy, Jesús is a prime example of someone who could receive this same honour in the future. He's still an active player and has a few more years left in him, but it's a shame that won't be able to play on Sunday. He has an injury in his soleus and you know that with muscular problems you can't know for sure how long he'll be out for. Although he won't be playing, someone else will step up and help us to win this difficult match.'

And now he turned his attention to Real Valladolid, who have only lost one game away from home: 'We have to recognise that we've done very well so far, but it's difficult to stay in that position. We have to keep moving forward slowly but confidently. The immediate objective is to get these three points against a Valladolid side that, despite not being as glamorous as other teams, are very capable and the stats that they've been putting up shows that it will be difficult to impose ourselves on them. They've only lost one game away from home, at the Bernabeu and everyone who saw the match knows how it went. I hope that the break hasn't done us any harm and that everyone is in top condition because we need it.

'Valladolid have only lost one match away from home and it was at the Santiago Bernabeu'

Furthermore, ahead of the match in Nervión, Barcelona will play at the Wanda Metropolitano: 'It's a match worth watching. For you guys, the possibility of a new league leader might be interesting, but I'm not worried about the table at the moment. What I'll do is take it match by match, try to win each one and then see where we end up in the table.'

Speaking of André Silva and the option to make his loan deal a permanent one, the manager declared: 'If they ask for my opinion I would recommend that we buy him, but he is the one who is going to decide things with his performance and not the manager nor the club. If he continues his current form and keeps scoring goals, applying himself and making those around him better, he himself will show that if we don't exercise the option to buy, we're blind. It's not something I'm worried about at the moment.'

'André Silva is the one who is going to decide things with his performance whether we have to exercise the option to buy'

He also spoke about Gonalons' injury: We feel sorry for him because he's been so unfortunate and has only been able to give us a snippet of what he's capable of. He's had the worst luck with two bad long-term injuries. It's unfortunate but you can't control these things. We'll wait for him because he's shown that he wants to do his best to return ahead of schedule. I'm sure that he's going to be able to help us in the final stretch of the campaign. There are many matches and many more months to go and he was a player who would give us the option to play Banega in a different position, but we've come this far without being able to rely on him and the squad has shown that it has the ability to cover for the absentees.'

Without Jesús Navas, the door opens for Aleix Vidal to get into the starting line-up: 'He'll certainly have the opportunity. Whether he steps up or not, he's the first one who'll want to do it. Sevilla put their faith in a player that they already knew, with the qualities that he's shown. We have to get the best out of him and now he'll play where Jesús has been playing. What we do day to day is what will decide things.' To conclude, he recognised that the five international players will be available if nothing unexpected happens: 'They're all fine physically. Even though the transatlantic journeys are long, I think that they're all okay.'