Pepe Mel, Málaga CF coach appeared in the Juan Cortés press room at La Rosaleda to analyse the first Copa del Rey match on Sunday at 12:00 against Peña Deportiva at Santa Eulalia.
Firstly, he stated that this competition “can come in handy in part, as we need many things to reaffirm us. We have to compete, get through and the players have to view the Cup as a possibility to show good sensations... and all that is going to help us,” he said.
Along these lines, he later added: “It can be used for many things, and we are going to take it seriously; we’re going to compete, and we have to take steps forward.”
When asked if he saw this match as an opportunity to give minutes to players who have participated less or to think about LaLiga SmartBank, he said that “we can do a mix of both things, it could be a good match to try something for later, which is the match against Zaragoza.”
Regarding the rival, Peña Deportiva he commented that “they have players who have played in the Second Division. We're going to play on artificial turf and they'll have all the enthusiasm in the world to eliminate us. We have to think that this game could be good for the next one, which is at La Romareda.”
Escassi, Álex Gallar, Luis Muñoz and Fran Villalba won’t be available for this game, as he’s suffering with “groin pain, so we’ve stopped him from playing this week thinking we can regain him for the next one.”
Pepe Mel is clear that “our problems we’ve had for a long time are not psychological, but about concepts and tactics that we can solve by ourselves.” He stressed that “we have to fix the mistakes that make us lose points when we are no worse than the rival.” The Blue and White coach sees the team “wanting to turn the situation around, it's a challenge that I have to achieve with the players.”
