MACHÍN: 'WE PUT IN THE HOURS AND WORK SO THAT THE PLAYERS HAVE EVERYTHING THEY NEED'

'We put in the hours and work so that they have everything they need and they can carry out what we want of them'

Regarding Sevilla's current position in the table, Machín commented that 'if we're able to be second in this league it's because we're doing a great job. But we can't become complacent and it would be a mistake to think that everything's wrapped up. We can always improve in every aspect. I'm working so that the phases of play in which we dominate become more and more frequent. We come up against great opponents who want to do the same as well though. The best psychology is common sense and bringing that with you wherever you go.'

'With the quality of the players, the initial idea of playing with a lone striker turned into creating more spaces down the side so that that quality could be displayed better in the middle of the park with Banega, Sarabia, Vázquez etc. With the injuries, we had to press the reset button and look for a way to allow the best players to perform at their best and we're working on that. I think that it's giving us results because we're getting forward a lot and scoring a lot of goals. We have to continue in the same way, which will certainly be difficult. We also have to try to foresee what is going to happen, and not just live in the present and react to the difficulties as they come. We want to be happy at the end of the season, and for that, we have to prepare ourselves for when these bad moments arrive and be prepared as possible,' said the Sevilla FC manager.

'We always try to improve in every aspect and certainly not regress'

Moving onto questions about individual footballers, Machín was asked about Banega, Ben Yedder, Promes and Roque Mesa, and how they've been developing since the manager took over the team. On the Argentine and the French forward, he said that 'credit has to go to Banega for having the ability to do so many things. I already said to the players that I didn't want them to accept my authority just because I said so. They themselves should understand the reason for things and understand what's best for the team. I was unsure at the start about how to get my ideas across quickly to the players and I was showing them a lot of clips of how Girona used to pay with me to help them understand what we were trying to do to make the performances better. Ben Yedder's a very good player. There were rumours about how Machín didn't want Ben Yedder but I'm not stupid. We need a target man which he wasn't. If we attack down the wings we needed someone to pin the defenders down and for that we were looking for someone different. Ben Yedder took advantage of that target man to do what he's doing, as well as helping the team in lots of other facets of play.' 

'Roque Mesa has shown his true level in the last few matches and it's only fair to give him recognition for that'

Speaking about the Dutchman and the midfielder from the Canary Islands, the manager recognised that 'with Promes we have more options. I have to wrack my brain to have the most in-form players on the pitch and those that are going to help us. When we needed him to play in that position he showed us that he was willing and he also gave us good performances, and we now have an extra substitute for Jesús Navas there as insurance who can do a very good job. Roque is a good player but it's fair to give him recognition for the recent matches where he's shown his true level. He had a bad moment in the match against Betis, which was unfortunate for him but that's now behind him.'