Gracia: "We want to go far in the Copa del Rey"

The day before a Copa del Rey opener against Terrassa, Valencia CF coach Javi Gracia set out his hopes for the competition in his pre-match press conference.

Excited about the Copa del Rey

“It is a new competition and the entire squad is full of excitement about it. Our opponents are from a lower division, but they are dominating in it and getting victory after victory. They concede very few goals and are going to be demanding to face. The pitch will also be a different kind of surface. We have to adapt and give our best. This is a good opportunity to continue improving, to compete at our highest level and to see players that are not featuring so much in LaLiga.”

Aims for the competition

“Nobody has told me about any objective for the Copa del Rey. As professionals, we want to go far in the competition and, if possible, win it. But that’s also the case in all the games and all the competitions we play. We always want to win. I cannot conceive that when starting a competition the objective would not be to win it.”

The Copa del Rey format

“Nothing is won on name alone. We have to do our job, and in order to beat a lower division team we have to do a lot of things well. If we relax, then we might suffer or even lose. We know what can happen and we will try to do the best we can. I like the new format much more. It is more attractive, fairer and it seems like a very successful format.”

Preparing for the game

“We try to prepare each game in the best possible way. With so little time between one game and another, we orient our working time according to what we are going to encounter, and to making sure that the player has the necessary information when he takes to the field to feel dominant and be surprised by very little. Today we did part of our training on a an artificial pitch, so that the players can anticipate what they might encounter tomorrow. We will use some of the players registered to the youth teams, but we will always have a limitation on that. We are going to put together a very balanced and competitive team to try to get through the tie.”

Adaptating to the playing surface

“The surface is always important. Playing on an artificial pitch is not the same as playing on natural grass. The player always has to get a feel for the bounce, of having less control of the ball. I don't like to exhaust my players many times, but I do like to push them for a while in a session and give them the experience. There is no point in punishing their joints. You have to be prepared, but not do it for a long time because we have to take care of our players.”

Bringing back players from injury

“Gayà and Hugo Guillamón are back training, and we hope that they can be in the squad against Barcelona. I’m optimistic. Jasper is on a long recovery process. It’s nice to come here and see him every day, happy and willing to recover. Gameiro has a small injury and won’t be out for long. I think that he will be ready to train with the team soon. We have Lato’s situation, which we will see how it develops, and we have to look after Maxi Gómez’ knee.”

Manu Vallejo

“Manu Vallejo has been doing a very good job from the start, and the minutes he has always helps the team. We don’t have an abundance of players in that parto f the attack, and we want to use some players sparingly. I don’t want to reveal the team that we will field, but Manu is going to be part of the 20-man squad.”

A positive Covid-19 test in the squad

“It affects us just like all teams. We have recently had some cases, and each is different. The previous ones had come after trips away with national teams. This last case was more unexpected because the player had not been exposed to a higher risk situation. We accept it with concern for the health of the player and with the inconveniences that it provides regarding the preparation of the matches. On the other hand, Kang In is back training with the team. The first thing we have to do is make sure the player recovers, for his health, and the sooner we have players back, the better, because we have many games coming up soon. The cases we had in preseason caused players to have a more costly adaptation. But most are usually mild symptoms. Cheryshev’s was an immediate recovery. With Kang In we also believe that he is going to have a relatively quick return.”