First team

LOPETEGUI: "PAMPLONA IS ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PLACES TO GO IN LA LIGA"

07/12/2019

Lopetegui spoke about Osasuna's great home form and how difficult it will be to win there

Julen Lopetegui gave his press conference this afternoon before tomorrow night's match in Pamplona against CA Osasuna: "It's one of the most difficult matches of the entire season. They're a great team with great players, and a fantastic coach. If we want to win tomorrow, we're going to have to be at our best all over the park. They demand a lot of you, they play at a good tempo and they have in-form players who are dangerous. We have to be prepared for these types of games and be able to focus on what we have to do".

Talking about those players who are a doubt for the game, he said: "Some players have gotten better and we're going to wait until tomorrow before making the decision. A few players have picked up knocks this week but that's to be expected over the course of this long season. What's important is the ones who play tomorrow, this is really what matters to us". Lopetegui isn't also looking at their history in this fixture: "I'm not thinking, at all, about these sorts of facts and figures. The only thing we're thinking of is the job we have on our hands. Now, there's an important and massive challenge ahead of us; which is to play in El Sadar against a great team who went 30 games without defeat there in the league".

Lopetegui went on: "In each game, whether you win or lose, there's always things to work on. Of course, we've many things to work on and it's not just whenever you don't have such a great game. In every game, there's always things you need to work on afterwards, both in the attacking and defensive side of the game. It hasn't been a usual week because we had more days to focus on just the one game, and we tried to make the most of that to continue working hard and improving".

He was finally asked about the possibility of Navas playing in Ocampos' position: "Jesús has been a winger his whole life, but ultimately we'll have a think and decide what's best for the team. Tomorrow, we'll have to analyse how things pan out and then we'll take the decisions to see who's in the best position to play and compete. Everyone has to be on top of their game because tomorrow is going to be a real test".