Mendilibar has 18 available players for Villarreal trip
The Eibar boss is confident that his side will deliver an improved performance and achieve a positive result
José Luis Mendilibar has 18 players available to him for Sunday's encounter with Villarreal CF at the Estadio de la Cerámica.
Alejandro Gálvez, who has strained his left rectus femoris, joins a list of sidelined players which features Yoel, Iván Ramis, Fran Rico, Pedro León and Iván Alejo.
These injuries mean that the 18 available members of the first-team squad are as follows: Riesgo, Dmitrovic, Capa, Arbilla, Paulo, Lombán, Cote, Juncà, Dani García, Escalante, Rivera, Jordán, Rubén Peña, Bebé, Inui, Charles, Enrich and Kike García.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Mendilibar revealed that the players came in "with their heads down" on Monday following the defeat to Celta, but after Tuesday's day off, the squad "has been more focused on what lies ahead than what's gone on in the past". "We've had a good week in training and in our daily work"
"It's a meeting of two sides that need to get something from the game. With them being at home, they need to win it and we too need to put some points on the board. It's impossible for both of us to achieve those targets. We'll be looking to come away with something by focusing on our strengths and going about things in the right way to win the game. We can't go thinking too much about them and we just have to concentrate on the areas that we can improve on ourselves".
"They've had a change in coach and in terms of the way they play. They've undergone a pretty big change. I don't know whether they'll carry on with what they started yesterday or if they'll look to change things. They're very tough opposition, they're involved in Europe and year on year they're always there just behind the big three or four".
"Whilst being aware of the challenge, I believe that we head there sure of how we're going to play. Sometimes you're on the receiving end of a thrashing and that helps you to learn your lesson early on and become aware of what we must and mustn't do. We'll have to produce a high-intensity performance and play to our strengths".
"The fact that we've had one or two poor results doesn't mean that we have to frantically go changing things. We have to try and improve our performances and make less mistakes than we have been so far".