‘We must have humility and courage to face hurt opponents’
Jose Gomes warns that Alba ‘will walk out on the pitch with maximum force’
José Gomes gave his take on the next league adversaries to start off a month of madness in terms of quantity and quality before the end of the year: ‘If we look closely at the last matches that Albacete played…Despite they just won two matches, they deserved to win more. They’re a team with enough quality to do better and they’ll walk out on the pitch on Monday going all out for a win all three points. I expect tough adversaries, even though things did not turn out well for them in the last games’, explained the Rojiblancos’ head coach. In the meantime, he also mentioned the type of game he expects: ‘Their first intention was to park the bus by not opening spaces, but they’ll be determined to play on Monday and that’s good for football.’
The Portuguese head coach shared one of the keys to achieve victory at the Carlos Belmonte Stadium: ‘I expect a tough Albacete and we must have humility and courage to face hurt opponents who will do everything to change their reputation after the last game. Albacete will start the game with their maximum strength and will show us their best weapons offensively.’
Almería are to face the fixture in their best form, yet that will not guarantee to win more games. This is how he reflects on that note: ‘That’s a thing from the past. It’s been good and you have to enjoy it till it lasts to gain confidence, but we haven’t gained anything yet though. A game may change everything because there’re no distances within the table. We need to be fully focused and on the lookout for what they do well and take advantage of their mistakes. There’s no time to celebrate. We have to count on the weapons we have for the next game.’ In this regard, he expressed his sheer joy at what he has seen this week in training: ‘The players are training very well and I’m not saying this to boost their morale the easy way. It’s the truth. And the fact that I have to choose another squad list and starting XI, gives me a headache because there’s so much quality and talent within the squad.’
The next month of competition will demand the best of us since in normal conditions it would be four games -one per week- and this time, it will surely be more than double -if we include Copa del Rey and a postponed game-: ‘What I’d like to have is more recovery days between games, although I completely understand that it’s something very difficult for those who decide and plan the schedule. If we look at the block of the next five fixtures, we only have two days off between games three times. That’s the way it goes. We'll try to get the games started with those who are stronger.’