Competition news
LOTINA VS CAMPOS
28 Oct 2009
Campos could be living his last game at Murcia’s bench after the poor start of his team at Segunda, while Lotina hopes for a relief after the setback against Valladolid. This is the first confrontation between both coaches.
José Miguel Campos Rodríguez is a Murcian coach that replaced Javier Clemente in December of 2008 after the team failed to reach the top places. At the time he was the coach of Murcia B and had achieved the promotion to Segunda B one year before. But now Campos is living his most critical moment as the poor situation at Segunda A is pushing him towards the exit door.
Real Murcia was a candidate for the promotion to Primera, but the situation is very different after nine matchdays at Segunda, because the team only has seven points and lives in the relegation zone. Rumours say that Campos will be sacked on Thursday, just after the game against Depor, newspaper El Faro de Murcia is even claiming that the club already has a short list of four possible replacements: Juanma Lillo, ex- Celta Fernando Vázquez, Andoni Goikoetxea and ex-Nastic César Sampedro
The major shareholder of Murcia, Jesús Samper, assured on Sunday and after the defeat against Recreativo (0-1) that Campos will be the coach of the team in the Copa clash against Deportivo, but didn’t confirm if his status depends on the result of that encounter. Samper also criticised the work of Campos and the attitude of the players in the last games, he even suggested that some players like Mario Rosas should be playing in a more ‘advanced’ position. In the meantime, this is the first confrontation between the Murcian coach and Miguel Angel Lotina.
LOTINA
Depor’s coach gave a press conference before the trip to Murcia, he was saying that the players with fewer chances on this season are going to have an opportunity in this game, “The virtue of this squad is that it trains hard, and that’s possible because the people that don’t play so often are training with a lot of intensity. That’s why the substitutes deserve the chance to prove why they are here. It’s not that we are throwing away the Copa, actually we are giving the importance that it deserves over the grass, playing with our football.”
More in concrete, Lotina gave five names of players that are going to be starters in the game, “Manu, Laure, Piscu, Lopo, Angulo and Pablo Álvarez will play. I want to see how they are; it is not the same to watch them during the trainings or in a friendly game against the B squad. We are putting a very competitive team, we are hopeful about the Copa and that’s why people that are working hard and that deserve respect are going to play.”
Later the Basque coach talked of the big setback against Valladolid, “We must be smarter enough, to learn from Sunday and know what we are. We lost the two games in which we missed intensity (Espanyol and Valladolid). We must play with intensity, order and football; if we stop doing important things, then we are a very normal team. We didn’t go out like in past occasions; I told the players that I’m feeling hurt by the defeat in Valladolid, for many reasons, but especially because a lot of fans were there with us, they also feel screwed.”
Finally, Lotina was cautious about the rival, this despite their poor results of Murcia in this start of season, “At the beginning it was a candidate for the promotion; the things have started badly and now they are having a lot of doubts. They made good signings and have important people, but football is like this. So the Copa is like a distraction for them and that’s dangerous. We have known similar cases. In the past a team coached by me was at Segunda, Osasuna, it eliminated Depor, who later won la liga, and at the time we were down there. Later it was promoted because it had a very good coach (he laughed)”
CAMPOS
Real Murcia’s coach talked to reporters after the last training session of his squad, he was talking about the criticism of Jesús Samper towards his work and the performance of the team, “He can say whatever he wants, because he is the owner. We are used to it. In any company in the world the boss must tell to the employees what he perceives, and we already saw what happened. Last game was a match in which we weren’t there since minute 1, and I understand his words coming from that view. We are far for achieving our goals for this season, but that’s why we are here; we want to change the situation.”
About the convenience of been facing a Copa match after all the current problems in liga, Campos said that, “I think it’s good for us to be playing in Copa, we give due prominence to the competition. For me is easy to be isolated after the setback on Saturday. I don’t have any problem to feel motivated; I am a positive and optimistic person. Not so long ago, this team was in a more difficult situation and we surpassed it, why we can’t do it now? We just need to continue working.”
Campos also said that his team is living a transition period after the relegation from Primera, “We are far from our goals, but we must understand that we are living a transition period, both sporting and economic. Our hope is to be among the first eight places. This year we have had economic problems and we cut the budget, and from there we had to compose a competitive team, and we are happy with the players that we signed. Another thing is to have found the needed balance to achieve the victories.”
Finally, he analysed the meeting that he had with his players on Monday, “I talked to them during one hour, here, in this same room, and I think that we are optimistic about the performance of the team. It was a positive meeting and I saw an emotive response during today’s training, I saw an aggressive and positive attitude and that’s what the coach wants, to see an alive and happy team.”
Related news
PREVIEW: MURCIA – DEPORTIVO (COPA, 20h00 CET)