Pepe Mel reminded everyone in Abegondo’s press room today that “every team is competitive in Primera División, Three have to drop. What Deportivo has to do in this situation is leave three teams behind. And from that moment on is when I say Deportivo has to begin to have higher expectations. I think this Club, this entity, has to be in other situations”.

If Dépor achieves a victory in El Molinón tomorrow (12pm, Bein Sports), the Deportivista coach believes that “we would reaffirm everything we did well on Thursday; achieving a victory would mean that people would become optimistic, and when I say people, I’m referring to Dépor followers in general; achieving a victory means that fans will believe and hold their heads up high; achieving a victory is thinking about other things for a Club like this”.

However, not winning in Gijón would mean “putting behind what we’ve been living since the Atlético de Madrid match finished, we’d be starting from scratch again”.

Although Pepe Mel believes it is “absurd” complaining, he thinks “it makes no sense that for our next match on Wednesday 8 March (Riazor, 6:45pm, Bein Sports), our rival (Betis) has had two days of extra rest. They are things you have to accept and not fixate on them”.