We begin our Europa League campaign on Thursday, away at last season's semi-finalists, Eintracht Frankfurt.
After arriving in Germany, Unai Emery addressed the media in his pre-match press conference - and here’s every word from it.
on the squad selection…
We are playing a lot of matches and I want to use different players and also we can have some rotation in the first XI. We have 19 players in the squad for tomorrow, Sokratis and Mesut are rested for the match.
on whether Mesut isn't playing because the game is in Germany…
No.
on why Mesut is rested…
I prefer after Sunday's match to rest for this match, to train and be ready for Sunday.
on whether this will be the toughest game in the group…
Yes, we are excited for the competition, we are going to start tomorrow and we are playing opponents who last year played the semi-final against Chelsea and lost on penalties against them. To start against them is a tough match for us, but also we are looking to start in the competition. We have good feelings in this competition for this season. We played last year in the final, we lost but for us it's a new challenge this year.
on Mesut being rested...
Because we are going to play another match on Sunday. He played on Sunday now my focus is on tomorrow, and to decide my first XI, I decided who are the best players for tomorrow and decided also the players not in the squad, who are Sokratis and Mesut.
on whether Frankfurt's physical approach is a reason behind it...
The first game he played on Sunday he played physically well, giving us his capacity. His first minutes for us this season were good and now he will be helping us, not tomorrow, but Sunday we have another match. We are thinking to do some rotation in the first XI.
on whether the team had a team bonding session this week…
Yes, they decided before the match to have dinner together. After the match they were disappointed but decided to go and be together. Our players are responsible for how they can take their hours out of the job and for me it's perfect.
on how he will approach the game…
To learn is first to have analysis on how we can improve, how we can recover our confidence playing with our objectives, starting and controlling the match, what we are doing with the ball. Really on Sunday we needed more, that's what we wanted. We made some mistakes and conceded some goals. We spoke and we are working yesterday and today on how we can play tomorrow. Frankfurt are usually doing a very high press, with very fast players around the opponents. Tomorrow we need to improve on the mistakes we made on Sunday to do better. Also we want to achieve another way on the pitch, how we can break the pressing. After we want to control every game with the ball, with the positioning. We did that on Sunday in the first half, but in the second half we didn't. And tomorrow is a new challenge, how we are improving, our positioning, our control and our ability to break the press. Also how we can play the long ball and make some actions in the attacking third, to get the ball, to score and to win the match. Tomorrow is another challenge for us to show we can improve from the game on Sunday.
on when he will name the captaincy group…
My focus this week after Sunday's game was to speak about the match with the players and the training. Today we are planning the next match, I'm going to propose to announce it next week, after the game on Tuesday.
on the atmosphere he expects in Germany…
We prepared the match yesterday and today and we will again in the hotel in the morning. We really respect this team, because last year they played in the semi-final with a big, big performance all the season. They are going to be pushing with their supporters and also they are going to be excited to start against us and show their capacity. Really it is going to be a very good match I think, because these two teams want to do something important in the competition. It's the group stage now, and it's the first match, but for us it's to play and to show against Frankfurt what we have for the competition this year.
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