Jagoba Arrasate spoke to the media ahead of our hosting of Celta Vigo on Saturday afternoon at the Estadi Mallorca Son Moix. Find out what he had to say below:
On the team: "The team is very excited, firstly because we're playing at home, and every game we have left at home we have to face like a final. And, well, we're coming off the back of a defeat too, so we have that need. If you add that to the fact that we're up against a direct rival, it's a very important game. The players, we've got Muriqi and Cyle back, they're fine. It's true that Martin is training, he has some discomfort, but he's training and Mojica has been able to train, so I'm optimistic about them. We have the absence of Robert Navarro and the two suspended players, Samu Costa and Raíllo, and we have Jan Salas in the squad as well."
On the last few games: "There's less and less left, now every time you win a game it's like taking a leaf out of the calendar. Every game you win is going to bring you a lot closer to staying in the fight until the end. But of course, it's one thing to say it, but then you have to do it because everyone is finding it hard to win and now we have two rivals who are in the standings."
On no Raíllo: "For us, he's a key player on and off the pitch and he's having a great season. We knew that when he has four yellow cards he could go down at any moment. I think Martin and Copete are reliable centre-backs, who have played a lot, and David the other day showed he's ready too. Opportunities for others, as well as Samu, who is usually a starter and won't be able to play tomorrow. I always say the same thing, they are important players not because I say so, but because I put them in and that's where the minutes are, but the strength of this group is the collective."
On the mentality after 40 points: "The same, we are training the same, with the same desire and the same intensity. We are preparing the games in the same way, nobody should think that we have reached 40 points and we lost in Valencia. We're training the same, we have the same enthusiasm and ambition, we don't want to get stuck on those 40 points and we want to win tomorrow to stay in the position we're in."
On the season coming to an end: "There's still a long way to go and our chances are still intact, whatever the result tomorrow. That doesn't take away from the fact that it's an important game, we're playing Celta and right now they're level with us on 40 points. I think we have to take the four remaining home games seriously, both ourselves and the fans, because that's where our chances of staying up until the end are going to come from."
On Europe: "I don't know, but with 40 I'm sure we won't, we need to keep adding to it. I don't know, the last one I remember was with Osasuna two years ago and we got in, with 53 points, seventh. But well, that could be an indicator, but I don't know how it goes, there's a lot of direct confrontation as well. What we have to do is try to win tomorrow and not do the maths."
On Celta's danger: "All the teams have a lot of good things and also aspects where I think we can do them a lot of harm. What I would highlight is the courage, in every sense: putting in a home-grown coach and using home-grown players, playing in a certain way, I think that's Celta's greatest triumph beyond whether they reach Europe or not. All of that makes Celta attractive right now, a model for others and, what's more, they are getting results."
On defeat in the first round: "You always learn from every game and from defeats, as they sting, even more so. This is a team that is very strong at home and away from home, in the first half of the season it was harder for them, but now they are also solid. We already know where they're going to go because they do more or less the same thing, which doesn't mean it's easy for their opponents. I say that because they have an idea, a model and a very clear style."
On the youth team: "We've arrived here in this situation, it's true that now the reserve team has been relegated, but I don't give too much importance to that. I think the message has to be that David López is in the first team, that Jan Salas has made his debut, that Marc has made his debut. That the players in the reserve team or the youth team see that the door is not closed, that the door can be opened. I think that's the best message we can give to the youth team. We understand that it is not easy to retain talent, it is very difficult nowadays for clubs that are not the big ones, but the message has to be that."
On Celta's: "I think they're looking at the fact that they've gone seven games without losing, that they're in a good dynamic and if they win tomorrow they'll be in a very good position. I think that's enough motivation for them to go out tomorrow at their best."
On the fans: "We don't have to look so much at the quantitative as the qualitative, surely. It's true that there are members who don't go every week, we'll probably have to look into that, it also happens in other clubs. But the people who do go are really into it and we need, as I said, that the people who do go play the game as well, we can feel it."
On substitutes: "I understand that when you reach 40 points it's easier to talk about other things, especially when there's a break in between. It's part of football, I prefer to think positive: we have 40 points, the same as Rayo and Celta. We're excited about tomorrow's game, there's a lot of stimulus for tomorrow. I give more food to that."
On Cyle Larin: "I see him there, he trained very well today. His mentality is what it is, we don't all have the same mentality. The other day he couldn't finish training, he was out, but today this week he trained well and he's ready for tomorrow. Let's not leave Larin for dead, he also started the first half of the season like that and in the end he was decisive. I see him here, I see him scoring some important goals between now and the end of the season."