Real Oviedo Head Coach Cuco Ziganda appeared in the Press Room this morning, ahead of Monday's trip to the Fernando Torres stadium to face CF Fuenlabrada.
The Gaffer was first asked for his evaluation of his time at the club, with a year having now passed since his arrival. He commented that "what stands out for me is the people I've met, the very intense moments we experienced last year, and the confidence and continuous support I receive on a daily basis, both in the city and within the club. The shows of affection and support. What sticks with me is the people, the hope there is in the club, the support and the hunger to live through Real Oviedo, with a sense of belonging and love for the badge. It has been a spectacular experience so far, with some good and some not-so-good moments on the footballing side, but with so much excitement. I feel support, unity, and a lot of hunger to do things well."
The Coach was then asked whether he is worried about the team not currently putting in good performances, or whether this will come with improved results. Cuco Ziganda explained that "teams often need the boost of results to believe in what they are doing, but the coach prepares them with a playing philosophy to give them the tools they need. You work on the attack and on the defensive foundations. We are working on it and trying to be as complete as possible in both areas. Then you have concrete situations, where you might not have much luck in certain moments, and it all has an impact on results. All of this has to even up over the course of the year. You train to do things well and play as well as you can, because it gives you more chance of winning. The best thing to do is to try to play as well as possible."
The Coach discussed the cases of individual players, talking about the fact that possibilities exist for every single first-team player, and then analysed the performances of specific players, such as Christian, Edgar and Javi Mier. He was then asked about the forwards and the options up front, saying that "it is important for any team that the strikers go into matches with confidence, but we are happy with the work Gustavo (Blanco Leschuk) is doing and that's why he is playing. All of them have a chance of playing, though." Ziganda elaborated further, saying that "in the last month we have played with Rodri and Gustavo, who are out and out strikers. In the last few games we have opted for Nahuel in the hole, but now we will see how it goes. We have options and we will decide based on our sensations, form, and if we want to bring consistency to our results. We will see how it goes."
With respect to the next opponent, Fuenlabrada, who now have Oltra in charge and won the last match, the Coach expects to face "a team with more confidence. I don't pay much attention to form because every match is different. We needed to win the last match and we did win, and Fuenlabrada were similar. It's a match which will be fought more on the technical and tactical level, rather than morale, although that is also important." Talking about form, and asked about set pieces, Ziganda explained that "we have stopped our bad run and let's see if we can put together a positive one now. We were better and gave more of a sense of security, which is important because we know that plays a big part in results in many cases. Let's see if we can keep that security and solidity, so that we can compete in every match and not lose them because of the small details."
Finally, asked once more about the season's objective, the Real Oviedo Head Coach stressed that the side must "take it day-by-day. That's what we all need to do, because doing calculations or making predictions when it's not in your hands or you don't know what will happen doesn't end well. The best thing to do is to take it little-by-little and then in April we will see what we are aiming for. Sometimes it seems like you're not doing that well, and then things get difficult and you think about how well you were doing a month earlier. We need cool heads and to play with the same hope, strength and energy which all of our football matches deserve."
