Igor Oca: “We have to be brave and play well to win”

C.D. Leganés head coach Igor Oca appeared at a press conference on Friday ahead of the team’s match against Cultural Leonesa on Saturday (2:00 p.m.) at Estadio Ontime Butarque, as part of Matchday 27 of LALIGA HYPERMOTION.

The coach assessed the team’s current situation ahead of the match as follows:

Absences: “We have one confirmed absence, Jorge’s. We’ve got Ignasi back, and as for Pulido, we’ve known about his situation since the start of the season.”

Naim: “These are competitive situations. We’ve brought in a new player who has added depth to that position; he’s a very important player for us, but these are tactical decisions made for each match.”

Failure if we finish in our current position: “What was said isn’t just one person’s opinion, but what we all think. It’s a feeling we have inside, and we work every day to move away from that.”

Disparate performance at home and away: "In our last three away games, it’s a reality that we’re struggling more against those teams. I see it as a challenge. We haven’t overcome it in the previous three matches; we can point to different circumstances, but we have some unfinished business there. We have Cultural ahead of us and then Sporting. It’s something we’ll have to face; we’re improving, but it’s not going our way, and we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to pick up points in matches like Burgos or Córdoba.”

Confidence: “We're going to manage to win on the road against opponents who are ranked higher than us. But we can't get complacent against any team. Anyone can beat anyone. Since the start of the year, we've won at home without conceding a goal and played a style of soccer close to what we want, but that doesn't mean we'll start off leading 1-0. We need to stay fully focused.”

Óscar Plano: “There’s little left to discover about him given his track record. He’s a good player, and then you can position him where he’ll be most effective. Sometimes he plays in one spot and other times in another; he’s feeling comfortable and delivering moments of high-level play, with and without the ball. We’re happy with his performance.”

Realistic goals: "Game by game, I’m taking away interesting things. It’s not black and white. We lost in Córdoba, and we’re all disappointed by that, but there are positives to take away. We managed to dominate them and create clear scoring chances. We shouldn’t throw everything away. But that doesn’t give us the right to talk about medium- or long-term goals. We have the next match to prove we’re doing well at home. We’re going to give it our all to play well and win tomorrow, and then we’ll have a week ahead of us to prepare for the match in Gijón.”

Atmosphere in the locker room: “Day-to-day things are going very well, but we can’t settle for that. It’s a means to an end—to achieve what we want, which is to win. Before, we won fewer games; now we win half as many, but we’re not satisfied. We want to win more.”

Improving on the road: “There are inconsistencies that show we need to improve a lot, but that's just how it is. In Castellón, we had our worst performance of the season, but we still had a chance. We have to prepare well for games, as we're doing, but we don't see this as an insurmountable hurdle. We're convinced that we have to make it to the next round.”

Expectations: "The enthusiasm and freshness I bring with me. Sometimes people make judgments based on baggage that prevents them from seeing the positives. We’re coming off a relegation and a start to the season that wasn’t what we wanted. We have to look a little further ahead. A successful season would be getting the players to raise their level of play and get as close as possible to our maximum potential. We need to step it up; in some cases, we’re already doing that. When we get everyone on the same page, the results will be better."

Direct rival: "They’re six points behind and would close the gap to just one game. We’re four points above the relegation zone, and the first thing we have to do is pull away from the teams below us. A month and a half ago, we were in the relegation zone. We’re close, and we have to look at it that way."

Progress since his arrival: “It’s hard for me to look any further ahead. There are sixteen games left, and we can’t be complacent about anything—given how competitive it is and how close the points are. Our focus is on the short term, but there’s still a lot left, and you have that hope and that energy because you can see the players want it.”

Rainbow armband: “I know I represent a club that values tolerance. I would take that step forward on a personal level; whenever there are social causes, we always try to help as much as possible.”

Problems in attack: “We’re creating chances. Individually, players have different instincts in front of goal. With Luis and Dani, we’ll create opportunities; we’re scoring from set pieces—less than we’d like, but at an acceptable rate. Building on that slight improvement, which has allowed us to earn more points, we’ll keep working to get better.”

Going out to win: “We have to be brave. We’ve played at home and felt the fans’ passion, and we can’t afford not to be brave—we have to take the initiative, minimize the time between chances, and try to play well to win.”

First-leg match: “We’ve analyzed them. We’ll try to take the game to those areas where we believe we can make a difference. We believe we’ll do it and that it’ll go our way so we can win it.”