Gracia: "We need a demanding mentality in terms of defensive work"

The day before a midweek fixture against Real Sociedad, Valencia CF coach Javi Gracia gave a press conference at the Ciudad Deportiva to preview the Tuesday night trip to the Reale Arena.

The Matchday 4 game

“Real Sociedad are one of the best teams -or the best- at the moment. Not only in terms of their squad, with homegrown players and quality signings; they are a complete team. They have a lot of alternative ways of playing and a well-defined style that they have worked on. They have a good base and are improving. The first thing that we have to do is have a demanding mentality in terms of our defensive work. We need to work on all of our virtues, because the game is going to be demanding. Our offensive work will be to preserve our attacking pressure, which takes us to one-on-one situations through good passes. We need to exploit that, and make the most of set pieces."

Recent form against Real Sociedad

“The statistics don't encourage optimism, and neither does last season's game. But those runs are there to be broken, and we will go there with that motivation. I don't know how people consider our chances, but we are going there convinced that we can win if we do thing well. We have struggled against 'inferior' opponents who have put us in difficulty; however people see us, we have to fight for the points."

The transfer market

"I prefer to focus on the next game, and on the importance of beating Real Sociedad -one of the teams who play the best, and who are demanding. I would like to be focused on that, but I can say that there is no news regarding transfers. I am concentrating on my job, and o getting the best performance from the team."

“What concerns me most is how the team play. That is what I work on. Anything else doesn't depend on me, and I hope -and trust- that good players will come in who will make us better. It's a vicious circle and we might have better options, as well as get into a positive dynamic. However, what I'm most worried about is how we play. There is a lot to improve, and we should do better."

The defence

“We have to improve defensively. In preseason we were demanding with this and did a good job, keeping clean sheets, and now we are into official games and our level has dropped. We are obviously looking at improvement on both an individual and collective level -not just in one line. It's something that we need to do, that we will improve with time, when players come back from injury and new arrivals come in. We can't aspire to win games giving away so many chances, because we won't score so many goals as to counterbalance that."

The Europa League as a possible target

"I don't know what squad I'm going to have, and it isn't fair to make these types of evaluations. When we have our squad in place, I will tell you that we need time to see where we are competing. At this time, the analysis that I have made of the recent past is that last season the team were ninth, the average is between eighth and ninth, important players have left and there have been no signings. We'll see. We are trying to place as high as possible. When I came here I said that I wanted to be the best."

Kang In

"Every game is different. Real Sociedad play well and use a high line. They are demanding with their pressing and we will try to look for the best option for this. Kang In can offer us a lot this season."

High pressing

"There hasn't been a premeditated change. We have been gradually overcome, and when you see that happening you lose confidence, but our plan is still to be aggressive and win balls in the opposition half. Our opponents have their virtues, they have got past our press and pegged us back so as not to run any risks. The mentality of the team is still to be aggressive and win the ball in the opposition half, and for that you need to be fresh and not lose confidence."