Víctor: “We believe in the idea we’re working on”

Start of the season

“The team has taken a step forward in this first stretch of the season. We’ve only played five matches so far, and you can see a Málaga side that goes for the three points in every game, and that’s the path we need to follow, working all week to get the win.”

Plenty of minutes in the opening matches

“I’m grateful to the coach for his trust, but it’s going to change throughout the season. The coach is going to want one hundred percent from each of us, and when someone dips in form, he’ll make rotations just as he did last season and in the first games of this one. His philosophy is to count on everyone, and that raises the team’s competitiveness.”

Learning from the first defeat

“It hurts a lot to lose in the last play. There’s an action where the referee could have called a foul, and that doesn’t happen often in the final minute. Looking back, there are many things we could have done, but we need to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. In the second half, we saw a Málaga side that could have taken all three points from a very tough ground like Huesca’s.”

Healthy competition with Dani Sánchez

“I’ve noticed huge progress in my teammate and in myself. Dani trains at one hundred percent every day, and that pushes the whole defence to meet that same level of demand. That competitiveness is great for us, as it drives us to push ourselves day by day and finish the week in the starting-11.”

Absences in the team

“Our approach doesn’t change, we have to go for the three points from the very first minute. We need to show a team that stays compact and presses high. The fact that a teammate gets injured doesn’t change anything, it’s part of daily life in every club. We have to normalise it, stay even more united, and play for them. The ones who suffer the most are those who can’t be out on the pitch.”