C.D. Leganés manager, Mehdi Nafti, appeared in a press conference ahead of the Pepineros' 16th league game of the season this Sunday at 18:15 (CET) against Real Oviedo at the Estadio Municipal Butarque.
The coach speaks after a long week of nailing down new concepts of the game: "When you win, you see everything differently. We've had more time to distribute our focus in areas we want. We've drilled a lot of new information into their heads and this week has been about securing it all. It's a long season, but we're on track. We hope to have more of our injured players back too. Avilés and Quintillà joined us at the end of the week and I think they'll be available for Sunday. With Sabin it's a little less clear, so we'll assess tomorrow. Rubén Pardo has also recovered, and I can say from personal experience, he's a footballer that technically and mentally is on another level. We'll miss the internationals too as well as Doukouré, Bárcenas and Bautista".
"My concern is the team's improvement and we're hard away at work"
On upcoming opponents Real Oviedo, Nafti commented that "they're having an interesting season. Their defeat to Burgos was a real turning point; they played fantastically in Eibar and against were toe-to-toe with Las Palmas. Borja's feeling confident, he's looking ready and dangerous so we need to be careful with him. But my main concern is the team's improvement and we're hard away at work."
The Franco-Tunisian manager also expressed that the home crowd deserved some joy: "To compete in the play-offs without promotion at the end has to be a blow, so you start the year ambitious, optimistic, but the results don't go your way and then you start losing stability. If we can help bring some joy back to the city, the club and the fans... The day we played Cartagena, through all the cold and the rain, they stayed supporting us a lot. We're going to do everything we can on Sunday to make the fans proud".
