Corberán: “We share the fans’ pain”

Valencia CF coach Carlos Corberán spoke about the 0-2 defeat to Villarreal CF in his post-match press conference.

The penalty decision

In a first half where the team competed -in many periods outplaying Villarreal, we had to deal with a penalty situation in a move where they hadn't really created a chance. Watching the replay, I honestly think Copete was trying to avoid contact, not seek it.

But VAR came into the equation, the incident was reviewed, and the referee's judgment is that it's a penalty. We had no choice but to deal with it, but it's clearly a move that defined the game; because in the first half, within that equality between us, there was a moment where Valencia CF were outplaying them in attack, and where we weren't conceding chances in defence.

The fans

We understand the pain the fans are feeling. They cheered us on; they gave us a spectacular welcome when we arrived here at Mestalla. Throughout the game, they were constantly cheering on the team. We understand their pain, we share it, and we take responsibility for changing it through hard work.

Hurt

‘Hurt’ is the word that best defines the coaching staff, the squad, and Valencia fans right now. Hurt because we had the hope of turning around the recent results. I've seen the team have the mentality to do it and the personality to do it, especially in the first half.

When you don't get the result you want, and what we feel our fans deserve - which is to give them more wins-, then we're left with that pain. We have no choice but to keep working, to keep growing, and to give the fans the results we all feel they deserve, rather than the ones we're getting.

Not giving in to frustration

Frustration must always be avoided, because it's the opposite of good performance. If there's frustration, there's no performance, and if there's no performance, you don't win games.

Our goal should be not to get into that, but rather to analyse, reflect, take responsibility and look at the things we've done well. Because there have been good moments for the team. We need to look at the moments where we didn't give the response the game required and analyse them so we can improve our performance.

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Marcelino’s comments on the game

I didn't listen to Marcelino. I respect the opinion any coach gives in a press conference. Marcelino has a Valencia CF background. I respect Marcelino as a coach a great deal, but I focus on getting the best out of my players. And today, after this match, even more so on analysing it and focusing on getting the best out of them, because that's our objective.

Mestalla

Mestalla is something that helps us. Today, until the end of the match, I saw the fans hurting because of the result, trying to cheer us on, trying to see if they could help us with their encouragement so the team could score a goal to put us back in the game. We tried, we couldn't do it, but for us, representing these fans is never a problem; it's quite the opposite.

That's why, when the results aren't positive, we're so hurt, because we want to live up to all they contribute to us.

Subbing off Gayà and Javi Guerra

The first change we made was taking off Lucas Beltrán, who suffered a knock and was unable to continue the second half due to injury. Lucas's performance during the first half, for me, was extraordinary.

He allowed us to link up the play and helped the team regain the momentum they had been lacking, allowing us to balance the first half here against Villarreal.

Then, in the second half, when we were already 0-2 down, we needed energy. We needed players coming off the bench to contribute. We took a risk, so to speak, and that was to put a No.10 in as a central midfielder to try to win the game.

Gayà hasn't trained normally this week; he had a knock, and we took advantage of the energy that Jesús Vázquez also has, trying to find opportunities that would give us opportunities to increase the number of chances. But there's nothing more to any of the substitutions.

For the final changes, Dani Raba came on and Santamaría came on, because we saw that Pepelu was struggling in the closing minutes. For the last substitution, we took risks to see if we could get a goal at Mestalla that could put us in a dynamic of trying to get the result -which we didn't achieve.

Responsibility

Those of us who are in Valencia right now -me as the coach, and the squad as players- are the ones who have to try to turn things around by giving our best.

I always understand and respect that, because in the end, for me, the fans deserve the best. The feeling they have, we have to translate into responsibility, commitment, work, and giving our best. We are the ones who currently represent Valencia Club de Fútbol.