Pepe Mel appeared in La Rosaleda’s Juan Cortés press room this Wednesday. Amongst other things, the coach talked about how the week is going, with three matches coming up: “Following the full-time whistle against Eibar we had that low, that feeling that kills coaches, knowing you have to do a press conference and you’re still thinking about the game, you had other expectations and you’re disappointed. By the time you get home, you’re already thinking about the next match, looking for solutions and giving them to the players. This is the most important thing, that they can see they have the means to get out of this situation. That’s what we’ve been working on over the last few days,” he explained.
In regard to the modifications that were proposed at the end of the match against the Basque rival last Sunday, Pepe Mel said that there are going to be some changes: “You are going to see a somewhat changed team because we have three matches coming up. We’ve played one and another one is around the corner. We’ll do different things and, in some cases, with different players.” As well as the football modifications, Málaga CF will now have sports psychologist Patricia Ramírez’s team on hand, who will accompany the team on match days.
As N'Diaye pointed out to the media after the last match “we mustn’t justify speaking in the plural. You have to speak in the singular. I spent the whole night thinking about what I’m doing wrong, I'm doing something wrong. The questions I ask myself are the ones I ask them to ask themselves. And then to work on them on the pitch. We’ll give our all until the last day,” he stated.
FC Cartagena are in seventh place in the standings and the Malaguista coach assessed the Blue and Whites' upcoming rival: “They’re doing very well. Last year they were about to get into the playoffs, and they have maintained the bulk of that team. They want to be the protagonist at their home ground, and they have some interesting players. It’s going to be a nice Second Division match,” he added.
To conclude his press conference, Mel wanted to send a message of pride and responsibility. “We are Málaga. We’re not giving ourselves any value. We are at the bottom of the table, but we’re a historic club, a much-loved club in Spain, a club with a long history… Valuing ourselves will make us improve,” he said.
