‘The squad feel strongly motivated and eager to succeed’
José Gomes sees Girona as ‘a strong team’ and highlights that he is looking for the best version of Almería
The UD Almería head coach, José Gomes, gave a virtual press conference from the Gran Fama Hotel, where the team are getting together, and he mentioned that the ‘squad feel strongly motivated and eager to succeed’ when there are 48 hours left to start the play-off competition.
The Portuguese head coach is fully aware that Girona are ‘a strong team’ and ‘well organised’, who will make things difficult. Nonetheless, he pointed out: ‘We are extremely excited about going out onto the pitch and winning to bring this joy to all the people who can’t be in the stadium due to the problems we are having.’ As he said, Almería are ‘just one step away from being able to achieve something very important.’
José Gomes stressed that goals are a key aspect in a knockout stage, highlighting the good results and performance of UD Almería during the regular phase. ‘Everyone has noticed the top quality, so we want to organise the team so that these players have space to demonstrate and that, in those moments, the team are balanced to be able to stop the opponents,’ he declared.
The Almeria’s gaffer works to find the best version of the Rojiblanca squad. He also stated that he wants to go a step further than ‘breaking down the opponents’ offensive strategy.’ In this sense, he explained: ‘We have to go out onto the pitch with a plan to stop the opponents and look for their weak points to attack.’ In addition, the coaching staff, as they have recognised, are supervising each training session to make sure ‘what problems each player has and help them reach their advanced level football skills.’
Moreover, José Gomes gave an in-depth analysis of the playoffs and he believes ‘it is essential to know how to combat the players’ fatigue, which would allow us to develop a more practical approach of how can we play the next games and that no one happens to get injured.’
Regarding the requests that various teams have recently made regarding the options not to play the play-offs, the Portuguese prefers to stay out of ‘the things we can’t control to put all our energy on the pitch.’ Of course, the head coach expressed his total respect for all his colleagues.
José Gomes also referred to several conversations he has had with the owner of UD Almería, Turki Al-Sheikh, in which the Rojiblanco president has told him about his ‘hopes set on being able to gain promotion to LaLiga.’ ‘Right now, we are here and he has strong motivation. He wants, like all of us, to ‘see Almería competing in Primera’, the Lusitanian concluded.