Fernando: 'If CD Mirandés are second after 18 Matchdays, there must be a reason for it'

UD Almería goalkeeper Fernando Martínez caught up with the Club's official radio station days before playing the 19th fixture of the first half of the competition, which will see them locking horns against CD Mirandés. The Murcia native spoke about the recent injuries picked up by his team-mates Baba and Gui Guedes: 'It's such a shame that these things happen after such a good team dynamic in which everything seemed like joy. Furthermore, they were performing at their best… The only thing we can do is offer them active encouragement, a lot of strength to help them recover as soon as possible so that they return to the level they were at.' 

 

The 34-year-old UD Almería captain detailed his impressions about Friday's rivals, who are being one of the teams who are surprising everyone this season with their numbers: 'When it's been a few match weeks, it can be considered somewhat deceptive, but after 18 Matchdays that they are with 34 points in second position, there must be a reason for it because they're doing many things well. They're the team with the fewest goals scored in the Segunda division and then they have attacking players who make the difference.'

 

Furthermore, the skilful goalie shared his opinion about the second-tier LaLiga Hypermotion of Spanish football, highlighting: 'The beautiful thing is that you don't know what's gonna happen as every year there are surprises. Teams that you expect to be at the top, do not finish getting started or teams that you think are going to fight to avoid the drop, are at the top of the table.' 

 

Speaking about the Rojiblancos' interests, 2021/22 Zamora Trophy winner stated that it is necessary to ignore, to a certain extent, the table because it is not definitive: 'We all like to see ourselves in automatic promotion positions, but there's still a long way to go. We know how long the second division is, the twists and turns that everything takes and the important thing is to continue scoring points.'

 

Fernando highlighted the winning ideology that the squad currently have and how much it has cost to get there: 'When you play at home and you're the favourite team in the tier, you're forced to think about winning, then you never know, but the mentality has to be that. The team dynamic in which we come is great. We have a very high level of confidence. We want to finish this first half of the campaign reaching 40 points, after seeing the start of the league that cost us so much. It'd be a good number.' 

 

The keeper concluded by acknowledging that the Indálicos are immersed in a packed calendar that started with the postponed match against Córdoba CF, the Spanish Cup tie in León and the midweek Matchday: 'We've been really busy for a month, playing every few days. The good thing is that we're a squad in which all positions are well covered with that quality replacement and there aren't differences between the players.'