Corberán: “We wanted to win for pride and to give the fans joy”

Carlos Corberán talked to the media after his side’s 2-0 win over Athletic Club at Mestalla.

Analysing the game

Until the 35th minute of the first half, it was one game. From the 35th minute onward, it was a different one. For me, I wouldn't differentiate between the Valencia CF before the opponents’ sending-off and the Valencia CF team after the sending-off.

For me, the team's improvement was in the moment we were able to adjust our defensive position on our left flank, moving Rioja to the left side to modify our defence. The moment the team understood why we did that, the team's improvement defensively was clear.

Once we went into the halftime break, we were able to make that defensive adjustment and understand what we had to do offensively. Then I think the team were already the better side up until the sending-off, and very different to in the first half. And after the sending-off, that superiority greatly increased.

I would divide the game into the first half and the second half. Because for me, that's where Valencia CF showed two different sides.

His halftime message

It was a matter of understanding what they were doing. Areso's position on the right was hurting us a lot in the first half. If our forwards didn't press and we stayed in defence more, it was impossible to defend against them -because they have the mobility that meant they could find free players in all areas of the pitch.

When we put Luis on the left, he focused on preventing Areso from receiving wide passes, and the team adjusted accordingly, both defensively and offensively. Up until that point, the team had been inferior to Athletic.

Keeping a clean sheet

It's vital, because without that clean sheet, it's difficult to achieve the result we achieved. The problem is that there's more to the analysis than just the clean sheet, because the team weren't at the level we wanted defensively in the first half.

We can't just focus on the clean sheet today. We have to review, analyse, and see what we could have done better defensively to have been more competitive from start to finish.

Agirrezabala

Julen was an essential player in us achieving victory, because in moments of defensive suffering he was able to keep the team going, making interventions that helped us to keep the shutout.

His target

The team compete with a very clear objective, which is to become better. And after a 6-0 defeat or a first half where we weren’t up to the level we want to be defensively, you can see that our goal has to be that we are as competitive as possible.

When every game is competitive and you get points and manage to win, you're well positioned in the table. If you can't compete, as happened last week, if we're inferior to an opponent because we're not well-balanced in attack or defence, we're not competitive.

This club have to be a competitive club, and we don't shy away from the responsibility of trying to be that way. When we hear the fans in the first half say that we didn’t create the rapport we need to create with them, we understand, because this is Valencia CF and this is Mestalla.

Redemption

It's not a question of putting ghosts to rest, it's a question of performance. The team didn't compete well in the last game, and during the first half today, the opponents outplayed us and we weren't able to neutralise them.

In the second half, or even before the end of the first half, with the adjustment I mentioned, to better defend their right back -whose height was causing the entire team to lose balance- the team managed to take a step forward.

Financial Fair Play

I don't know about the other teams' FFP limits. I know our reality. We've tried to build a squad that is as competitive as possible, according to our capabilities. Each team is its own world, each team has its own FFP, but it's not the same as the others.

Each team manages it with their own strategy, whether that’s buying partial player rights or buying full player rights but deferring payments over five or six years.

Financial Fair Play has a game and strategy component that each team uses in their own way. I don't know about the others; I focus on ourselves and on being more competitive than we were last week -and than we were today for a good part of the first half.

Regaining confidence

It was a matter, above all, of pride, and giving the fans some joy after a week that has been difficult for everyone: for the coaching staff, for the squad, and for all Valencia CF fans.

Because after a defeat like last week's, Valencianistas suffer, are in pain, and are angry. That feeling was shared by the coaching staff and the squad. From that point on, our desire was to deliver a victory based on a good performance.

We didn't achieve that performance for a good part of the match. The team survived those difficult moments, among other things due to Julen's interventions and participation. Then the team gradually recovered.

Before the sending-off, the team were improving. With the sending-off, they found more opportunities to demonstrate the superiority they've been demonstrating.

Strikers

Athletic Club, when we played here last year, were a team that pushed their defensive line forward a lot. Ee didn't find solutions because we didn't have enough space to break into the gaps.

The idea is to use our three forwards, because we have three forwards. We have Danjuma, who is versatile because he can play on the left wing or as a centre forward. Hugo Duro is more of a target man, because he plays in that position.

 Lucas Beltrán is a forward who also has a certain versatility, because he can play both as a main striker and as a second striker. Depending on the scenario we imagine for each match, we choose to start with one or the other.