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González: "We want to be as attacking a team as possible"
The coach previews the opening game of the season
Two days out from RCD Espanyol's return to the Primera División, and their opening fixture against Real Valladolid on Monday, coach Manolo González spoke to the media in a press conference. He looked at the task ahead, not just on Matchday 1, but for the entire campaign.
“Here, there is little relaxation. You have to compete and win from day one. You can't wait around. From the first game, you have to win. The good thing about this squad is that there will be competition, but we have to go all out from the first game in Valladolid," he told journalists.
“We are returning with the will to be where we want to be. You can see how tough the Segunda División is. When you go down, you pay the price of it being very difficult to get promotion. That has been shown every year and it was also very difficult for us to go up. We have taken Espanyol to where the club should be, and now we have to make sure that the club stays where it deserves, in the Primera Division,” he insisted.
Minutes before his press conference, the club announced the signing of Kumbulla, an international centre-back with Albania and a player with experience in Serie A. González said of the new arrival: “He has a lot of talent. He comes off a preseason with Roma and, for us, within our possibilities, he is an important player. He gives us a different profile to what we have. It is good news and we are very happy that he is here.”
Regarding Valladolid, the first opponents, the coach stated that “we have to look at their weak and strong points, but we have to try to be Espanyol. I want us to go to away games and have an identity, for the opposition to worry a little more about us. We want to have the ball, be protagonists and be as attacking a team as possible.”