Competition news
LOTINA VS EMERY
27 Sep 2008
Miguel Angel Lotina searches his first victory over Unai Emery after two previous confrontations. It seems that Lotina has pretty clear the squad for the game as he released the possible lineup during a press conference. Meanwhile Emery is assuring the important thing for him is to reaffirm the position of the team in la liga and at the same time to please its fans.
Unai Emery has been one of the sensations during the last two liga seasons. The Fuenterrab?a-born trainer is one of the youngest coaches in la liga (36), but his previous teams have always demonstrated an astonishing maturity. His grandfather and father were goalkeepers with an important history in Spain, actually his father was goalkeeper of Depor during the 60’s.
Emery, who was a left winger during his career as a player, never had the same success than his ancestors, but everything changed for this young coach as soon as he took charge of Lorca (Segunda B) in 2004. He was signed as a replacement and was so successful, that his team achieved the promotion to Segunda Divisi??n, Lorca was even close to conquer the promotion to Primera Divisi??n one year later. For the season 2006/2007 he was signed as the coach of UD Almeria and once again he did a great job ending in second place in Segunda and achieving the promotion to Primera.
The incredible career of Emery continued during the past season as Almeria impressed with its performance in la liga ending 8th with 52 points. That qualification means the second best mark of a new comer in the history of Primera Divisi??n. Then, searching for bigger triumphs, he moved on to Valencia for the present season. So far things have been good as his team is the current leader of the competition. This is the third confrontation between Lotina and Unai Emery, the previous games occurred on the past season and both were won by Emery (3-0 at the Riazor and 1-0 at Estadio de Los Juegos Mediterr??neos)
LOTINA
Coach Miguel ?ngel Lotina has very clear in his mind what he wants for the game against the Valencians, just when he was sitting at Abegondo’s press room after Depor’s last training, he was releasing the lineup for the game ?Aranzubia; Laure, Lopo, Z? Castro, Filipe, Juan Rodr?guez, Antonio Tom??s, Lafita or Pablo ?lvarez, Verd??, Guardado and Omar Bravo or Mista. Today we worked behind closed doors and I still want to think about the entrances of Mista and Lafita, players that recently surpassed their injuries.?
Asked about the lack of goals at Deportivo, the Basque manager responded ?We must try to create more attacks and to be more effective up front. I already commented that in Norway we made 21 approximations to the rival’s area, and that number only in the first half, and we didn’t materialize those chances, that fact was an exaggeration. As Johan Cruyff said it before: each time we have the ball the play must end in goal or with a shot on target, if not, there will be a counterattack. If you force the rival to start from behind, it’s easier to contain it.?
About the rival for Sunday’s match, Lotina commented that it’s a team with great individualities ?It’s a great team. This year they are betting more in having the ball possession, but they keep their defensive philosophy and to use the counterattacks. The great players always have an option during the ninety minutes, we will just try to make them feel uncomfortable.?
EMERY
Valencia’s coach said in a press conference that took place on Saturday that the important thing for him is to see his team feeling comfortable at Mestalla ?The goal is to achieve the needed chemistry with the public, to be strong at Mestalla and to see people happy with us. This match is important in order to reinforce our position, it should be an extra motivation for the public, to achieve their support in order to keep the first place… that’s what we want to transmit.?
About the return of Vicente to the list and the situation with the injured players, Emery commented: ?Vicente has trained well, and he’s entering with the idea that he could help. Marchena still has to improve, and later we have Baraja, Silva and Curro.? The ex-coach of Almeria also wanted to prevent any euphoria and false optimism before the game ?The euphoria is good but in the outside, in the inside we must be realistic and say the leadership in la liga is just a punctual thing, because in one game the classification might change, we know everything will be difficult and that we must be very demanding with ourselves.?
Finally, talking about Deportivo, Emery said that’s a rival that must be feared ?Deportivo is a rival that we respect a lot, their coach knows really well all his players, it will be a very tough match, they have great players and since that respect, we are preparing the game in a serious way. We want to see the public feeling satisfied for seeing a brave team, a team identified with them.?
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PREVIEW: VALENCIA – DEPORTIVO (LIGA, 19h00)