Joaquín Caparrós, en sala de prensa del Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán
First team

CAPARRÓS: "WHOEVER MADRID PLAY, WE'RE DEPENDENT ON OUR ATTITUDE"

08/05/2018
The coach downplayed the importance of Madrid's injuries and Sevilla absences, affirming that the key would be the players' attitudes: "People are happy and that's really important", he said

Joaquín Caparrós spoke to the media after training tonight, giving his thoughts on Wednesday's clash with Real Madrid. Despite the fact Madrid come to Seville with notable absences, for the Sevilla coach: "all Madrid's players are elite, whoever players. We depend on our attitude, on luck - which in football is important - and the good atmosphere. People are happy and that is very important".

In that regard, he reminded the press: "We said we had to go step by step. Friday's match is history now. Now another match arrives against a great team. We depend on ourselves. We're going to try and have a good match against Real Madrid to achieve a win that would be one step more. The level of expectation is high... we know what we have to do on the field, let's hope it comes off as we want. Reinvigorating the footballers is the most important thing".

"A squad has been built to play in the Champions League and for that reason we need to rely on whoever it is"

Caparrós admitted that there would have to be rotations: "It is what it is, we can't cry about it, it's what we have. We have players who have also been selected for such an important club like Sevilla... We have to recover players with the rotations... But there are no excuses, we have to play the players we have. A squad has been built to play in the Champions League and for that reason we need to rely on whoever it is".

He continued by confirming that in no circumstances would the derby affect his starting eleven tomorrow: "We're going to play competitive players. Don't talk to me about the derby, I know that it's not far away. I know that they'll party throughout the week but we're focused on the next match... If Banega doesn't play it won't be for cards, nor for the impressive effort he has made... I have a clear team, I'm just not going to say it. Of course I have to have a team and the players know it".

"The important thing is to not concede. Clean sheet, because chances will come and we'll finish them off"

He was also asked about a lack of goals from strikers; in response, he said the important thing was not conceding: "I've talked to them and told them they're very good players, they're elite... The most important thing about Friday is that we won and second we kept a clean sheet. If we want to achieve our aims the goals we concede needs to lower not by half but by more than half. Goals will come because chances will come... The important thing is to not concede. Clean sheet, because chances will come and we'll finish them off".

"We have to reinforce some of our ideas. That when we have the ball we take care of it because we have a lot of quality and when we don't have it we're aggressive... We're going to see if that comes off because in football there are two teams".