Luis Carrión: “It's a chance to play well, win, and advance to the next round”

C.D. Leganés head coach Luis Carrión appeared Monday at the press conference ahead of the Pepineros’ match on Tuesday (8:00 p.m.) against C.F. Trival Valderas at Ontime Butarque Stadium, as part of the first round of the 2026/27 Copa de S.M. El Rey.

The Blue-and-White coach offered the following assessment of the team’s current situation ahead of the match:

Absences: “We’re missing our two international players, Diawara and Gharbi, and a few players are dealing with minor injuries. We don’t know if Lalo will be ready; Andrés has also been dealing with some discomfort. We’ll know tomorrow.”

Defensive struggles: “We’re working on and improving specific situations, like the corner kick in Valladolid. They’ve scored on us from very little. 

We’re working on a lot of pressing scenarios to improve in that area.”

Opportunity: “To play a match, to win after such a long time. We place vital importance on the Cup.”

Trival Valderas: “We’ve watched their games. He does what he does very well—he’s excellent in transition and is capable of turning and finishing plays. They have a fairly well-established system with players of different profiles, and we’ll try to counter it as best we can.”

Mental aspect: “It shouldn’t weigh on us. When you don’t win, you’re in trouble, even if you’ve had good moments. But I don’t understand why we should be mentally down because of a soccer situation. The team is working well. We have to improve aspects of our game and build on that.”

Three-game week: “It’s an opportunity to do well, win, and advance to the next round. 

We’ll try to play a good game and be consistent in everything—both defensively and offensively. There have been good and bad moments during the games; we’ll try to be consistent. It’s an opportunity to win, and that’s what we want.”

Diawara: “The other day, we realized we had to play that way. They were playing almost man-to-man, and we preferred other options; since we were losing, we needed to do other things. 

He’s working very hard, and when he comes back, he’ll keep working to maintain that level.”

Defensive improvements: “The first issue is poor pressure in the middle. They move the ball around; we stick to man-to-man marking, and eventually a player breaks free, receives the ball, and has an easy run with it. We should have stopped him sooner. We need to analyze what we did wrong—that initial pressure in midfield. There are many things we need to avoid before those situations arise. 

When they attack us and get past our first line of pressure, they end up very close to our goal—we have to improve that.“

Pressure: ”We apply the initial pressure well, but we need to disrupt their play a bit more to prevent them from getting to us so easily.“

Sancris: ”He played better on the left wing. The other day, we thought he might have more one-on-one situations with Neva, but he was less involved. 

We had more chances down the middle. In the second half, he was more involved and played well—he’s very good in one-on-one situations, and we’ll assess his performance game by game.”

Clean sheet: “If you can keep a clean sheet, a draw is guaranteed. The question is how. You can work on a deep block, defending crosses from the wings… If we improve that pressure, we can create many attacking opportunities. In every game, we’ve created more chances than the opponent. We need to improve in that area and organize ourselves better. We win the ball back a lot in the opponent’s half, but when we’re not able to, they get into our box.”

Away at home: “We prefer to play at home. It’s an agreement between the clubs, and it’s as if we were playing at home. We have tremendous respect for our opponent, and we’ll try to win and advance to the next round.”

Youth Academy Players: “The plan is to call up Sule—even though he trains with us daily—along with Jorge Martínez, Diego Pérez, Herrero, and Nico Lozano. They’re training with us and are performing at a high level. The Youth Academy is doing a great job, and if any of them have to play, they’ll do well.”

Goals: “To see that the team is capable of winning, advancing to the next round, and improving under pressure. We’ll try to see that tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll achieve it.”

Gharbi’s absence: “We have to function as a unit regardless of the players on the field. We have a squad that’s deep and strong enough that no single absence will be noticeable.”

Importance of the match: “It’s an opportunity to win a game right now. I analyze the matches afterward, and someday we’ll win even when we play worse. It’s important to win. We’re playing a home game where we want to do things right and win. Our stats are good in some areas and not so good in others. We have to improve to secure the victory—that’s why we’re here.”

Lineup: “Some players may start again. 

The priority is to advance, and we’ll try to pick the best players. We want to play well, maintain continuity in our play, and advance. Players who haven’t played as much might get a chance, but what we want is to advance.”

Morata: “One of the goals—not just with him—was to create more scoring chances, and we’ve done that. I remember quite a few chances the other day; we created plenty regardless of whether we were particularly sharp with the ball or not. He’s a talented player, like Millán, Soko, and Unax. We need to organize things better; we’ve created chances, but when we get pressed, it’s too easy for the opponent, and that has to change.”

Personal Status: “I’m fine. You’ll never see me in a bad mood when it comes to soccer. There are always positives and negatives. The team always has room to improve.”