Pablo Machín in the press room of the Maurice Dufrasne
First team

PABLO MACHÍN: 'STANDARD HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN TOMORROW, BUT SO DO WE'

28/11/2018
The Soria native did not give anything away regarding his starting-eleven, limiting himself to saying 'we'll go with a competitive eleven to win tomorrow and also on Sunday'

Pablo Machín attended, together with Wissam Ben Yedder, the official press conference ahead of Thursday's meeting with Standard Liège. The manager started by evaluating the team's chance to qualify for the next round: 'We shouldn't relax. We know that we'll have difficult periods during the game. Standard have a chance to win this game, but so do we.'

However, he preferred not to give anything away regarding his starting line-up: 'The coach is also a manager and he has to do that job. Manage a squad that we believe to be competitive enough to face all the matches. The most important thing is what's in front of us and the La Liga match is further away. The domestic competition is very long but the group stage of this competition isn't, so you have to put everything in to qualify. We'll try to play a strong team to win tomorrow and on Sunday.'

'The most important match is always the next one and the La Liga match is further away'

The local press wanted to know if Machín felt inferior to Madrid or Barcelona in these moments, to which the manager replied: 'Each one has their opinion but I know that our team are first, which says something for sure and we're playing an offensive and attractive style of football. I have enough on my hands with worrying about my team to have time to consider if our style is more or less attractive than that of Madrid or Barcelona. They're incredible teams, who are better than us in many things, except for enthusiasm and points.'

 

Asked about the big win in the first group match between the sides, the coach was keen to avoid any complacency: 'Each match is different. The opponents play a good game and have the ability to get the ball forward very quickly. We have to be prepared for this, but we have to show the superior quality of our footballers and our collective play, which is the key to compete.'

'We have to show the superior quality of our footballers'

The manager was also not surprised by the team's good form: 'I'm the one who's going to the least surprised because we work to win as many matches as possible. Very few people thought we could be at the top of the table this far into the season, but every season is different. We've tried to make sure that the team has a good philosophy to compete well. The players are taking that on board and time will tell how far we're able to get.'

To conclude, he was asked about Quincy Promes' role: 'Every player that comes to Sevilla has the required level. If he's not playing regularly, that doesn't me we're not happy with him. In a big squad, there's a place for every player and no one plays every game. There are some who'll have to play more because of injuries or because we don't have the right replacements, but we have good players in every position and because of that we have to spread out the playing time.'