Unai Emery knows what awaits Villarreal this Saturday in San Mamés. The coach of the yellow squad is clear that Athletic has not competed for three weeks while for his team that of Botxo will be the third match this week. Still, he does not trust Marcelino or his lions.
“I don’t think Athletic is affected by being standing still. I wait for the Marcelino label team: the one that runs the most, the one that demands the most, the one that forces you. I look forward to that Athletic, despite these weeks of break, “said the yellow coach at the press conference prior to the crash.
Both teams know each other perfectly, so the surprise factor, at least for Emery, is ruled out a priori in this San Mamés duel: “Athletic will respect us because they know they must be at their best level to hurt us. We also respect them a lot, we know their quality and their level, so if we want to win in Bilbao we must give our best. We will have to suffer, go through bad times, but we must endure and take advantage of our possibilities. With Athletic we know well what that awaits us, although stopping them is the complicated thing ”.
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Villarreal arrives in San Mamés after having played and won the Young Boys in the Champions League on Wednesday in Switzerland: “We play every three days and that forces us to be very alive when choosing the players. We must anticipate how they are and how they are. “How can they accuse him. Albiol is a player with a lot of experience, he recovers well and works for it. We think he is recovered from the blow suffered, but we will see how he is doing. Besides, we already have Boulaye Dia recovered.”
Back to the meeting that awaits this Saturday in San Mamés and its possible line-up, the Basque coach highlighted Athletic as one of those “teams that demand you, make you run and give your best. We must find situations that give us the option to take a step further and give the best level. I am clear that we can lose with anyone, so in Bilbao we will play with those who are better. But we will do it if the players are good and we see that there is no danger. We already have one experience of other parties to know if we can risk “.
Emery has assumed that the opposing teams respect Villarreal and work hard to nullify their style of play. “We are seeing that the overflow capacity of Danjuma or Pino is something that the rivals are trying to annul us. We see that it is something that forces us to look for solutions. We must be us and have patience to be us and look for solutions so that the decisions the rival does not complicate us, “he argued.
When referring to the emergence of Yéremy Pino after a year as a player of the yellow first team, Emery indicated that “it is good that they talk about the youth and the quarry. He is a much more mature player at his age, he never stops working and help the team. He has improved in the break and that is a process we are working on so that quality comes out. “
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