Voro: "We had little reward for the chances that we had"

Voro González gave his post-match press conference following the game against Athletic Club, and gave his analysis of the 0-2 defeat at Mestalla.

Things he tried to bring to the team

"Like on other occasions, we tried to make sure that the team had the best mental disposition to face the game. In the one training session we tried to make sure that the team were solid defensively and looked for every concept that makes the team more competitive. You can't do much in just one session, but we tried to make the team play closer together and defend better."

The performance

"The players had a good attitude to compete in the game. If they were angry, then it's because they were losing, and that says something about their character and will to turn the situation around. We had a chance through Guedes and then conceded. In the second half we were a goal away from the equaliser, and a great strike was scored by them.

"We had little reward for the chances that we had. In the first half we had a very clear header from Maxi. Athletic have a very good dynamic, are well organised and we found it hard to play against them, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the team had a very good attitude."

The main aspect for improvement

"Football doesn't only consist of one quality -it's many. In terms of morale, when the team don't achieve good results and aren't meeting their expectations, morale is very low. Today was a tough blow, because we competed but lost. The 0-2 scoreline doesn't do justice to the effort of each player. Athletic penalised us a lot by being more effective."

Early goals conceded in either half

The first goal came from us losing the ball -it doesn't have anything to do with the minute it was in. The second was a great goal, right after the restart. I don't see a cause-effect relationship with it being the opening minutes of either half. Mistakes are part of football and in this case they punished us a lot. The team competed but paid dearly for mistakes. The players were angry, wanted to win and had a good attitude. Valencia CF have to aspire to play in Europe, and we're not in a position that reflects with the potential the squad have shown. We need to recover our morale after a situation in which the results haven't come. That's the starting point for getting points. We shouldn't look long term."

A message for the fans

The idea, as I said yesterday, was to get the players back, compete and ensure that they were always in the game and able to win. That's the minimum that you need to be able to achieve other things. We can't start counting how many games are remaining and how many points we need. Today was the first opportunity to pick up points, and we didn't do that. The circumstances led to us losing today. What's the message? That we are going to try. We are going to fight in every game, so that the team get into the Europa League. We are obliged to do that, and we are going to try, because there is no other alternative. The players are professionals and I've seen a dressing room that is low on morale. There is a positive attitude in terms of before the game and what I saw on the pitch. That's the only message to send out to the fans -there is no other.