Mendilibar: Valencia will look to pin us back into our half right from the off

Speaking today in his press conference ahead of tomorrow's clash at Mestalla, SD Eibar boss José Luis Mendilibar insisted that Valencia, "will want to put us under pressure from the off and try to pin us back into our half, as they seek to get their fans behind them and look for them to stay with the team".

The 17 available first-team players are set to travel to Valencia tomorrow, along with feeder-team goalkeeper, Markel Areitio.

Asier Riesgo, David Juncà and Kike García all miss out through injury, whilst neither Antonio Luna or Nano will travel on account of their respective muscular issues. However, there is a return to the squad for the fit-again Iván Ramis, who is included for the first time since December. Mendilibar is also able to call on Fran Rico, who missed the Armeros' last league outing.

The squad list is as follows: Yoel, Areitio, Capa, Arbilla, Dos Santos, Ramis, Lejeune, Gálvez, Dani García, Escalante, Adrián, Rivera, Fran Rico, Pedro León, Inui, Bebé, Rubén Peña and Sergi Enrich.

Mendilibar declared that Valencia are a much-changed outfit since their visit to Ipurua earlier on in the campaign, when they fell to a 1-0 defeat with Paco Ayestarán in the visitors' dugout. "We were very lucky when they came here, we won but they had a lot of clear-cut chances in the first half".

"We hope to spend more of the game in their half than we do in our own. This Valencia side are in need of the points, not because of the fears that they had up until recently surrounding their league position, but because this is a team that are still down there despite them having assembled a side to be right up there".

Mendilibar went on to reveal that his team will remain faithful to their customary playing style against Los Che. "Our style is the same regardless of whether we're at home or away, it doesn't change. Perhaps that's not the case for our opponents, who press more when they're at home and in front of their fans. There have been away games when we've pressed hard and have created a lot of chances and others in which that's not happened. In our last away league game, in Gijón, we carved out opportunities, made the running and I think that we deserved to win. Let's see if we can keep that up".