Saúl, firm with the “game by game”: “Whenever we have had the possibility of climbing, we have made a mess”

-How do you handle having the responsibility of being the leader of the locker room after arriving last summer?

– Experience has given me this positioning. Sevilla is a young team, through experience or games you will see that it is a team that needs to make mistakes, learn from its mistakes and little by little we will see that the team will do things better. I think we have made many mistakes in this first round which perhaps we had not corrected yet. We have stumbled over the same stone many times. I think that the team is now positioning itself in a way that these things are not happening as much. New things will happen, because there are many different mistakes, but we will not make the same mistakes so many times. Little by little we are going to improve as a group and as a team.

– Despite everything, the team adds ten more points compared to last year. There is a progression, which makes us wonder how far Sevilla can go.

– You will already know me. Match by match. Whenever we have had the opportunity to climb, to be in a quiet position, we have made a mess. As they say, our asses are raw from the mistakes we have made, and now it is not a question of thinking about how far Sevilla is going to go, we have to think about the Espanyol game. We are at home, with our people, with the very good work that was done in the last game and we have to plan the game well to be able to take the three points.

-How about with García Pimienta? Do you have similarities in your treatment with Simeone?

– There are not many similarities. It is true that they are both very demanding. Simeone has extensive experience in the elite and Xavi (García Pimienta) coached Las Palmas in the First Division and now has the Sevilla project ahead of him, his first great experience in a big club. In the end, we are all here in a moment of learning from each other, from the players to the coaching staff and vice versa. Little by little we are seeing that the ideas are being better expressed. I think that with the squad and the coaching staff that we have, we have to demand more of ourselves. All of this comes from experience. Sometimes the coach will make mistakes, as we do, but that is all part of the coach’s job.

– Does the institutional noise and the entire shareholding mess of society affect the locker room?

– The truth is that the club provides us with many facilities so that we footballers can focus on our work and be isolated from outside noise. It is true that the information reaches you, but I cannot give an opinion on something that I do not master in depth. Yes, I assure you that footballers are quite well isolated on this issue.

-How has the dressing room handled the whole Kike Salas mess? How does he look like?

– I can say little about the matter. He’s fine, he’s calm. Personally I refer to what the club has already said.

-Which young people on the team have surprised you the most in this period of time?

– Surprising, no, because I already knew many of them since the summer. Álvaro García Pascual was not with us, he came through the first team, he stayed… when he had the opportunity to play he gave everything. It is demanded of him and in the end he finds the opportunity to be one more. He took advantage of his opportunity because at that time Mateo (Mejía) was injured in his shoulder. If you do it well, you stay. Then there are very young people who come pushing, attracting attention, like Nico (Guillén), the ‘lefty’ with long hair. He trains with us and we ask ourselves ‘but, well, how old is this boy? 16!’. From there we all help him, we surround him so that tomorrow he can be an important player in the first team and an asset for the club.

-What do you expect from what remains of this January market?

– I think it’s a negative month. Players may leave, others may arrive. The hum is always there, every day. I think it is a negative month for all the clubs and all the coaches. We must try to keep the team as equal or balanced as possible. That there are not many exits to try to maintain the level. Then it is true that if good offers arrive, the club has to evaluate them, see the capital gains, it is also understandable. It is not an easy month for players. They tell you ‘this team wants you, the other team wants you, this offer doesn’t come out, etc’. It is not comfortable, but if we interpret it well, we can take advantage.