Corberán: “All of the players wanted to help the team” 

Carlos Corberán talked to the media after Valencia CF’s win in the Copa del Rey against Sporting Gijon.

Lucas Beltrán’s good form

“The key is always the players themselves. The work we do with the psychologist isn't about scoring goals; we all need to handle the different situations we experience, and at the club we have excellent specialists who always help the players deal with the various situations. Beltrán's work is outstanding because he's a kid with tremendous energy, dedication, and commitment. It doesn't matter if he starts or comes on off the bench, he's helping us a lot, and we're very happy to have him with us.”

The formation

“Today, the idea was to play with a 4-4-2. At times, the positioning of their fullbacks meant that our wingers had to help out defensively, and that perhaps made it seem like we were playing with five at the back, but we tried to start the match with four in defence. The team always need to be versatile and have options to adapt to the game.”

Absences and changes

“Perhaps the previous match at the Metropolitano was more difficult due to the absences. It's true that Danjuma, because of his ankle discomfort, couldn't train yesterday, and that already ruled him out for today. Dimitrievski felt discomfort that was confirmed as an injury, and the other day, after the match, we thought it unlikely that Cömert would be training with the group. It wasn't too difficult to put together the lineup because all the other players were eager to help the team and wanted to start, and then we adjusted the team according to the players' workload. We have three matches in a week; with 72 hours of recovery not being enough for the next match, we had to see how everyone was doing to be ready for the next game.”

Danjuma

“The next few hours will be important. He's not ruled out for Friday’s game. He has discomfort in the tendon that connects the ligaments of his ankle, and we'll see how it progresses. It will be difficult for him to train tomorrow. We’ll see if we can have him back in the session before the match.”

Javi Guerra

“He looked more comfortable. I saw glimpses of his true quality. He played with simplicity, ease, and great commitment. He's taken a step forward, which was also important for him.”

Diakhaby

“I thought he did very well. His return is very positive for us. He's a very important player for us in every sense. With it having been 10 weeks since his injury, he'll need more training and matches with the group to get back to his best, but he's taken a positive step.”