‘We have to go out there and give 110% if we want to beat Alcorcón’
José María Gutiérrez highlights that they will have to dig deep to overcome the team from Madrid, who have the best away form so far
José María Gutiérrez has analysed the next UD Almería’s home game and highlighted that ‘we have to go out there and give 110% if we want to beat Alcorcón.’ As far as the head coach is concerned, Alcorcon are ‘very tough opponents and we need to keep an eye on every move’, both defensively and offensively, since ‘they are a team with very talented players who are good at counter-attacking. When they take the lead, it is difficult to produce a comeback to beat them.’
The head coach underlined the importance of the Almeria’s footballers being ‘fully focused, knowing the difficulties that all teams have to deal with to win on home turf’ and even more, considering that this season, Alcorcón have not lost any away game yet. ‘That just goes to show what kind of team they are. Hopefully, we’ll be the ones to change that dynamic’, added Gutiérrez. Meanwhile, he pointed out that it is ‘a huge challenge’ to be the first team to beat the Amarillos on their travels.’
Regarding the type of clash he is expecting, José María Gutiérrez considers that the team led by the Almería-born Fran Fernández ‘don’t tend to keep containment and just sit off’, and therefore he stated: ‘They are definitely a compact side and play counterattack very well too. I’m of the opinion that they will wait for our mistakes in the midfield to be able to go out and make things worse for us.’
Moreover, the Rojiblancos’ boss explained that Almería have to ‘go all out for a win because we’ll be playing at home and we’ll have to try to dominate the game.’ In this sense, he mentioned: ‘We have to think that we have five games left. If we win those games, we’ll be closer to achieving our goal. At the moment, we are fully focused on Alcorcón.’ Soon after, José María Gutiérrez commented that it will be crucial to perform along the lines of the last victory achieved in Zaragoza, in this case, at the Juegos Mediterraneos Stadium.
The former Real Madrid player expressed his opinion that the players ‘can’t wait to continue growing as a team.’ Thus, he recalled his previous statements after the crunch game played at La Romareda in which, he praised the team as a whole first, even though each player’s individual contributions played a vital role in the side's success.
Despite the fact that José María Gutiérrez believes that ‘we have to keep up the good work and good vibes following our extraordinary triumph in Zaragoza.’ He concluded his pre-match press conference by making it clear that Almeria should not distract their attention from the next game to avoid regrets. ‘We have to be happy, enjoy the victories, but straight after focus on the next game.’