Diego Martínez: “Sustaining this performance will be very difficult”

How is the team? “Emotionally, and I have always said it, zero emotional hangover in both the positive and the negative. That was our reason for being since the beginning of the season. When it comes to doubts about who we are going to have in full condition to play, we are as before Levante. We have gotten used to it and we love to play three games during the week because that has a lot to do with the growth of the team. And as we say many times, where the success does not arrive, the insistence arrives and where the fullness of conditions does not arrive, the motivation and the illusion arrive. And above all, that I have a dressing room where everyone is looking forward to playing ”.

Kenedy. “We don't like to make individual evaluations. We are very happy with their performance. He had the problem after forcing him, by obligation, in San Sebastián. It broke and stood for three weeks. That, if it already cost the whole team, him even more because he came from injury. He took the tone and, as he is showing, he is a player with a special talent. But you have to leave him alone. The more focused you are on enjoying football and on a day-to-day basis is the most important. He is a player who has tremendous power, but it is also true that maintaining that level and those efforts for 90 minutes three days a week is difficult for everyone and for him too. We are very happy and what we were looking for when we wanted his loan was that he could exploit his best level with us ”.

Differences between this Huesca de Pacheta and the one in the first round? “It is not elegant to make that kind of differentiation. Huesca played a great game in Seville and against Real Madrid. He beat Valladolid 0-3 in his field and in Getafe he competed very well. It is a team that has a very clear conviction and ideas regarding its chances of staying in First Division. It has tremendous merit. We suffered it here in Los Cármenes, they scored three goals and we tied them with many difficulties. Okazaki and Rafa Mir are at a very good level. Also in terms of trust. Pacheta is doing a very good job. I have a special affection for him because this cycle, with Granada, we started against his Elche. They have just been promoted from Second B. It will end up endowing them with what they gave to Elche, which is a bit like we are, a team with many records, very competitive where everyone is important. I think he's a great coach and he's going to make things very difficult for us. They are very strong and very alive. Very hooked on salvation. They transmit that ”.

Ups and downs. “Vallejo will not be able to be. Those that are low are still low ”.

Very positive score against Napoli but it's time to focus on Huesca. “There are three options, what we have been doing all year; being natural, a hangover excites zero, focusing on recovering and preparing for the next game is a path; the other way is to listen to zero of what is outside, to listen very little to you; the third way, listening to you a lot when we have lost or when things are not going so well. Any of these three options puts us in the reality of football. The one I use is the first. This is present. It is difficult to compete every game and Huesca seems to me to be one of those important games at one of those moments of the season ”.

38 games, 19 wins playing every four days. “And from matchday one, after a very atypical preseason, three games during the week. That has not been experienced by anyone. I think there are 59 goals for and 49 against. The team's feelings are very good defensively, 15 clean sheets. This is a whole and you cannot value the team just for a competition. We have some records, which, with everything we have experienced in the form of casualties or COVID-19 speaks very well of the values ​​of this team and what we are doing. Playoffs are when they are. Barcelona has eliminated us from the Cup in extra time after being 88 'beating them. I am very proud of the team and that is why I have so much confidence in these players. The data is very good. We want to keep improving and moving forward. It is true that it is going to be more and more difficult. I already told the club and the property very clearly at the end of November that sustaining this performance would be very difficult if we did not do things very well from all senses ”.