C.D Leganés’ midfielder Rubén Pérez faced the media at the end of this Tuesday’s training at Instalación Deportiva Butarque. The andaluz referred to the return to training and competition.
The midfielder answered the questions sent by the journalists. About the return to training he remarked: “This is and will be a different preseason for us all. We are not used to individual training sessions and certainly will miss friendly matches, but we must adapt to this lifestyle as the other teams of LaLiga will do the same”.
About the difference between these individual training sessions and the ones before the lockdown: “They are different. The fact of being in reduced groups makes the training different. The security distance that must be held makes this preseason really strange.We will never forget it”.
“We hope to be ready as soon as possible”
The team’s second Captain doesn’t think that because of the lockdown more injuries or physical adversities may rise: “We all have been careful at home and even though our training hasn’t been the same, we are hoping that things will not be different from before. We are professionals, we have been working on our tactical, physical and mental strengths over the years… we are ready to return to competition anytime”.
“I hope that the amount of training sessions we are going to have will be enough to return to competition”, he continued “We are looking forward to LaLiga’s return as soon as possible, we are not here to complain about thing that don’t depend on us. We hope to be ready to compete as soon as possible. I believe that football is something that will help to the country and maybe other countries may have hurried a bit”.
About the return to training protocol: “It has been done well, but I also need to go to the supermarket, the pharmacy… places where I may have contact with asymptomatic people. We need to adapt ourselves to the difficult situation we are currently in knowing that it does not depend exclusively on us”, he remarked. The midfielder sees no problem of playing several days during the week: “There are many teams used to it. We are going to prepare ourselves for it”
“We will miss our fans a lot”
About the matches to be played behind closed doors the player thinks that they will feel the absence of the fans but will continue to be competitive: “It is true that Butarque makes us stronger even though this season we haven’t been able to get as many points as we wanted. We will miss our fans a lot, the same will happen with the other teams of the league, but this is the only option we have if we want LaLiga to resume. It will not be the same to compete without fans, but it isn’t the same to play home or away… At Butarque, without fans we should be strong, not as if we had them but we should compete well”.
Rubén Pérez also analyzed the current season which has been a different year for the club: “This has been a strange season for us because of many reasons, we have lost important players. The team has continued being competitive. With eleven matches for the end of the season we are in a better situation than the one we were three months ago”.
“The team will fight as always and there will be no excuses. We must forget about what has happened and only keep the good things we have made so far. We will play a season of eleven finals and we will put everything from us. We will be mentally strong”, remarked.
“We will definitely be better persons when this end”
About the contact that the players and coaching staff have had on the lockdown weeks: “Even though we could not be together, the captains have managed to be in touch with our teammates. We are all connected. At the beginning we did not know what was going to happen. We know that Javier Aguirre motivates us, and we are happy with him. We have had some videoconferences with him, and he is leading the team’s path”.
At the end, Rubén reflected about the human factors involved on these last two months: “We will definitely be better persons when this end. It seems that we were living a surreal life three months ago, we did not put the importance it deserves to things that right now seem necessary. Let us hope we do not forget these days and it means a lesson for us all. It has been a hard hit for all the country”, finalized.
