Míchel: "My number one goal is to get the players back on track and feel good mentally."

Girona is having a difficult season. After 33 league matches, not counting draws, they have only nine wins. This record places them sixteenth in the table and makes the mood in the locker room less than hopeful. However, despite this difficult situation, their manager, Míchel , is trying to view things optimistically. Thus, after the latest setback—the draw conceded against Leganés, wasting a numerical advantage for over an hour—the Madrid-born coach is focusing on the fact that it wasn't just two lost points, "but rather that we are one closer to achieving our goal."

The Catalans have five matches remaining, where they will face Mallorca, Villarreal, Valladolid, Real Sociedad, and Atlético Madrid. In La Liga, only four teams remain below them, meaning a return to the Second Division would be within striking distance in the event of a draw or defeat.

Regarding this possible relegation, Míchel commented that he too was "frustrated" and thought "we could go down." The match against Leganés left him feeling uneasy, with gestures such as smashing a bottle on the ground. The night didn't give him any respite: "My calves are destroyed; it feels like I played the game. I got home at 11:00, lay down on the sofa, fell half asleep, and woke up at 4:00 in the morning. From then on, I couldn't sleep."

"Affection, understanding and dialogue"

His team's situation is surprising, especially in light of their performance last season, when they finished third, behind only Real Madrid and Barcelona. Of their 38 matches played, they won 25 and lost only seven. These strong results allowed them to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history, a competition they quickly exited, falling in the first round. Participating in the major continental tournament undoubtedly drained their energy, the kind needed to survive in the league.

This difficult atmosphere in the locker room is something the Vallecano coach is trying to manage. He wants to "recover" his players, to support them "through affection, understanding, and dialogue." "Managing all of this isn't easy, and I have to give them the tools. More than a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2, my focus is on how to recover the players and make them feel good emotionally," he concluded.

Controlling expectations

These words from Míchel came at the presentation of the Save Football project, for which he serves as an ambassador and founded by Rubén Godoy . The goal of this initiative is to improve the violence and hatred experienced in grassroots football by seeking to re-educate from the grassroots level, in the pre-professional categories.

Another point discussed was expectations for players, something Míchel also linked to his club. "Girona's expectations this year have hurt us a lot. We've tried to control them, those coming from outside, but in the end they hurt. You have to have a lot of empathy with the player, the staff ... it's not easy," he concluded.