NYLAND: "IF WE IMPROVE OUR CONSISTENCY WE CAN COMPETE AGAINST ANYONE"

Orjan Nyland spoke at the 'Sácale Partido al Cole' event held at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. The goalkeeper spoke about last Saturday's match in Vallecas recognizing that “I had a good game, I'm happy with it. We had to work hard, but it was good to rescue a point." However, he is clear that we have to push for more: “It's important to keep getting points. We have had two draws in a row, and especially against Mallorca, it could have been a win, but I made a mistake and we dropped two points. We are close to the European places, but we have to improve our consistency. Some games we play very well and in others we give things to the opponent. We have not been able to win two games in a row and we are missing that final bit." 

Nyland sees himself ready for the upcoming matches, but as long as we improve our consistency: “It's a difficult schedule, but I like it when we play against good teams because it's easier to reach our level. Against Barcelona in the first half we showed that we could compete against them. But we have to improve our consistency and not have a good performance and then follow it up with a bad one. When we improve that, we will be able to compete against everyone. Last year we also beat Atletico at home, this year we drew in Bilbao. We are close to our aim, but we need to get more points." 

"Last year we had nine fewer points but we are not satisfied" 

He does not hide his desire to be at the top, but with his feet on the ground: “All the players want to play in Europe, but for that we have to get more points than we have so far. Last year we had nine points fewer and that is a sign that we have done good things, but we are not satisfied. It is possible to get more points than we have and now we have some difficult games coming up, but it is not impossible. Everything is very close this year." 

When asked about his fellow goalkeeper he commented that “Álvaro works very well, he helps me a lot and when I was injured he did a good job. It's important that when one is injured, the other can be there. I'm happy with him and it's always difficult with goalkeepers, because you have to wait for your chance. I am happy with the group of goalkeepers and the work we do." 

He also spoke about Saúl: “He is a leader, a player with a lot of experience in his career and always takes responsibility to improve the team and help his teammates. For me, he is doing a great job in the changing room and on a daily basis. All the experienced players have to step up, because we are not happy with the situation, and we have to win more games and get more points. I had to take that responsibility. Whoever has the armband has to help the team and he does it every day."