[Gossip Board] Will Barcelona Fans Support Us? The Spanish Coach Lamented: Football Is Really A Trick Of Fate

Hupu News on May 3, before the Spanish war with Real Madrid. The coach of Espanyol is Manolo Gonzalez. He attended a press conference and then spoke to reporters.

How did you feel at first? When facing a game of special significance, what is the atmosphere in the locker room like?

There is full strength in the locker room, full of desire, eager to win games, eager to play an extremely exciting game, eager to compete at the highest level, as they always do, even if the results are not satisfactory. The most important thing is to be fully committed from the beginning of the game, and to understand that this will be a long game, and the requirements set by the opponent are quite strict. However, I think that facing Real Madrid, tomorrow is a better day, perhaps the most ideal day.

I still want to ask again, given the current situation, do you feel that, based on everything that has happened, the Spaniards' main opponent at this moment is themselves, not those chasing behind them?

Yes, especially considering that in the end you find that in the second half of the league we should have gained more points, but that's what happened in the second half. Ultimately, as we said, the core of our discussions internally is to focus on the future and not dwell on the past, which is of no value. We must focus our attention on the remaining five games. Starting tomorrow, we must muster all our strength to play an extremely exciting game. I think we must keep the formation tight and orderly tomorrow, and clearly understand when to launch a pressing offensive and when not to act rashly. The most critical point is that we must not let Real Madrid operate smoothly, making it difficult for them to fully display their strength, because they have considerable lethality.

Just now you said that it is a good day to face Real Madrid. What kind of Real Madrid do you expect to meet? The opponent's coach also said at the press conference that the players on their team may be thinking about the World Cup instead of the league. After all, they don't have much left to fight for. Wouldn't this be a positive factor for the Spaniards?

Let’s take my experience as a player as an example. Although it was not a top league experience, I did play in some games where scores were of little significance on the surface. As soon as I stepped onto the green field, everyone had the idea of winning. When Real Madrid came here, no one would just come and hang out. , not to mention carrying their club title and team emblem on their chest, so tomorrow's game will be a difficult contest, but the upside is that we know we have the strength, and we had the strength to beat them here last year, when they were at their best. But again, because of this you have to be extremely, extremely focused during the game, and like you were here last year, focus until the 90th minute.

After the game against Levante in the past few days, were you worried about the disconnect between the team and the fans? There were boos at the scene, and Dmitrovic himself said he couldn't accept it because the performance was like that. Are you worried that the connection between the team and the fans that has been built throughout the season will be broken?

OK, I think the fans should be on the team's side at the end of the day. After all, what happened a few days ago was very normal, because the fans expected to win, but we failed to win, and the game ended with the opponent hitting the woodwork. However, the actual situation is that during the 90 minutes, until one of our players was expelled halfway through, Levante had almost no situation that could endanger our goal. The only two times they had chances were in the 90th minute and the other in the 96th minute. In fact, in the second half, compared with other games, we did not create many threatening situations. But the actual situation is weighed from relevant data and other aspects. We have indeed exhausted all our efforts to win that game. After that starting point, the performance in the second half was indeed poor. I understand the fans' anger, but I also firmly believe that tomorrow's fans will push the team forward as they have in the past.

It's probably the most interesting confrontation in the dugout, given the urgency of your mission to win and the pressure Arbeloa faces at this club. What do you think of this confrontation on the coaching bench? By the way, there is a coach who speaks highly of you.

Okay, ultimately this is something I often mention. I have been coaching for a long time and I have only taken over a team that was in the middle of the season. It’s not actually the middle of the season. It was at the beginning of the season, in the 7th round. It was Badalona in Segunda B. The situation was very complicated. When you take over It is indeed complicated to take over a team that he took over even later. It is not easy to take over a team that was not coached from the beginning of the season. Even if the players are extremely good, as they are, it is by no means easy. It is a difficult situation. In addition, these teams are all teams with history, Espanyol and Real Madrid, with different levels, but they all require you to perform at your best, so you understand from the beginning that when you coach this type of team, you must bear these. You must take this into consideration, because you know in your heart that once things do not go smoothly, you will naturally bear greater pressure than elsewhere.

At this moment, do you really feel that the atmosphere in the locker room has been aroused? Everyone paying attention is paying attention to what Levante is doing, also paying attention to what Elche is doing, and always watching what Alaves is about to do. Are we already in this situation?

Okay, so that's what we've been doing all year. Eventually, we will look at all the results and then analyze all the results. The thing is, when you're in a certain position in the table, at different stages of the season, you look out for certain results and others. So we're always paying attention to all the teams because as well as watching the games and suffering the pain of what we're going through right now, we do care about certain results. Beyond that, the most critical outcome is your own.

Real Madrid has an eight-day break, but Espanyol just finished a football match on Monday. So how do you carry out relevant management matters during this week, considering the difference in recovery days between the two teams?

okay, I think there are enough days to arrange, it is not as perfunctory as letting you just rest for three days and then go to the game. We played the corresponding match on Monday, which gave us some recovery time. It's like going through a six-day schedule that makes sense, rather than the complex structure of a seven-day schedule. That's the situation. Ultimately, the specific arrangement of the schedule will not… it will not affect whether you win or lose the game tomorrow. Whether there is one more day or one day less, these situations have nothing to do with the outcome of tomorrow's game and have no impact.

To win against Real Madrid, what will the Spaniard have to do tomorrow? After all, everyone thought it was impossible for the Spaniard to win the game.

Yes, obviously when you play Real Madrid we think we are going to win. In view of this, we will compete at the top level, understand the difficulties of the game, understand that keeping a clean sheet tomorrow is very critical, and know that we need to create scoring opportunities to hinder them. So it comes to the game itself and nothing else. We regained some defensive stability in these games, except for the day against Barcelona where the game was decided towards the end. But it is true that the team has once again found considerable defensive stability since the day of the game against Betis. That's what we need to try, in the last thirty meters, to regain the composure we had in the first half of the race.

You mentioned that the team has encountered difficulties recently. In the second half, you said it did not play well. I want to ask whether this is more of a psychological problem, such as the players' legs showing weakness, or a physical problem. The team is in a state of exhaustion and cannot run.

It's not a physical problem, because obviously I can prove it with a piece of paper, but I didn't bring it because I didn't come here to prepare for this. But I can make it clear to you that the team was the team that ran the most in the last round, so there is no problem in terms of physical fitness. The team has been running. There was a moment in our efforts when we lost our offensive structure and towards the end of the game we reorganized it and it was at that point that we lost control of the game and lost, how should I put it, the opportunity to get better into the opponent's penalty area similar to what we had achieved in the first half. For example, in the first half, we basically suppressed them in their half-court area. Except for one counterattack, I don't think they caused us any more trouble. Since then, it has actually been difficult for us to create opportunities in the second half. Even so, we still had two or three good situations, but we did not do a good job in handling the last pass and the final pass. However, it is true that the team did not have the same smoothness in the second half as when they controlled the ball in the first half.

Hill-Manzano is the designated referee for this game. What is your opinion of his history of officiating?

Well, okay, the last time he officiated our game was against Getafe, and he officiated the game quite well. I can't tell you about the previous situation. Well, I can tell you what happened before, but I wasn't there at the time. But as I said, tomorrow is a day to focus on ourselves, on the unity of Espanyol, on the team being able to compete well. We must not distract ourselves from anything else tomorrow.

In the game against Levante, there were tensions and mistakes. In view of the opponent's situation in this game, are there any psychological training arrangements this week?

First of all, okay, this question is in training mode throughout the second half. Ultimately, this happens to the best teams in the world, not just us. There are certain moments and scenes in the game, and it is not easy to control the game. In fact, there was a game just yesterday that had a certain amount of tension, Girona versus Mallorca, and it shows you that in moments like these, it's sometimes more important to maintain stability than to take too many risks. So we have to be very careful about it and know how to manage it. Fortunately, fortunately or not, that's been the case for the three years I've been here. So I firmly believe we will do great.

I know you don't care, but today's Barcelona fans will support you. The reason is that you can bring them closer to the league championship, and even a good result from the Spaniard can directly give the championship to Barcelona.

Football is really a game of fate, isn't it? Yes, the actual situation is that that is the thing that I least care about… just like what you said, that is the thing that I will least care about tomorrow. The key is that the team can compete in a good situation and has the ability to win. The rest, whether Barcelona wins or loses, will be based on their own performance throughout the season, not because of what we have done. For us Spaniards, in this situation, what is beneficial.

I want to ask about the kind of nervousness you experience during a game, but on the other hand, it's normal. Do you think that tomorrow's match against Real Madrid may be a team with nothing to lose. Can you resolve the pressure accumulated in these rounds?

Yes, especially if you look at the first half, the nerves were not there because the team was fluid and able to move forward. We didn't have five very clear scoring opportunities, but our performance in the penalty area was particularly outstanding. Starting from the 10th and 15th minutes, we used pressure to counterattack, which caused considerable trouble to Levante. In the second half, they didn't cause us any trouble until the end, but it's true that we didn't press forward like we did in the first half. This is the key point that brings a sense of instability to the game. From high to low, this is what we must control because it is extremely complex. First of all, at least for teams like us, such as Levante, or even Girona and Mallorca, it is quite complicated to control the situation throughout the game.

Obviously, the fans will definitely support you, but obviously, this current decline does have an impact on everyone. In this five-game schedule, what kind of message will you send to the fans? These five games are so important to you, and such a wonderful season needs to end in a good way.

Yes, we have to achieve our goals as quickly as possible, and the fans play a key role, as they have in the past. Since I came here, and I repeat, since I arrived at Espanyol, the fans have always been with us and I am convinced that they will continue to support us. When the league ends, when we finish the league, we will gather strength again and think about what everyone will do next. But now I feel that we all have to work together and do our best to achieve our goals.