Mendilibar: We're doing alright now but we can't afford to relax
The Armeros' boss has named all 18 available players in his squad list for tomorrow's clash against Girona
José Luis Mendilibar believes that his side are doing alright but insists that "we can't relax" because "we've achieved absolutely nothing yet".
The Eibar boss has included all of the 18 available members of his squad for tomorrow's encounter against Girona FC at Ipurua (19:30 CET). The full squad list is as follows: Dmitrović, Riesgo, Capa, Arbilla, Lombán, Gálvez, Paulo, Cote, Dani García, Escalante, Cristian Rivera, Joan Jordán, Inui, Bebé, Ruben Peña, Sergi Enrich, Kike García, Charles.
Iván Alejo has picked up a last-minute injury that sees him join the list of sidelined players after suffering a strain to his left quad, which rules him out of the encounter.
Mendilibar stressed the importance of putting points on the board tomorrow night at Ipurua. "It's very important that we get something out of the game. We're at home and it's not easy to win back-to-back home games. If we take something from the game then that'll put us in a good position".
"A month ago nobody thought that we'd be where we are now. You can easily hit a poor run of form and this is a really tough league. Often things all depend on your run of games. Fortunately we've done really well and have won a lot of games in the past month".
"Girona have had the same coach now for a number of years. He has played a big part in how well they're performing. In a 24-man squad every player is important, both those who go out there and play at the weekends and those who come in and train day in, day out. If the players that aren't playing decide to throw the towel in, those who are involved then see it as being easier to keep hold of the shirt and their performance levels tail off".
"It's better to take the lead in games, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll go on and win. Girona, who use a different system to us, have a playing style that's pretty similar to ours: they apply the high press, get crosses into the box and get a lot of players in and around the area to try and pick up the second balls. They've been clear about that idea for a long time now and haven't changed anything after achieving promotion, they remain faithful to the same system, which is delivering results. They're an aggressive side that are very difficult to play against".