GRANADA
Late dealing riles Jémez: "We're giving our rivals the upper hand"
The Granada coach also spoke about blacklisted striker José Angulo: "These things happen but every one of us has to be responsible for our own actions".
Granada coach Paco Jémez feels that his side have been put at a slight disadvantage to their LaLiga peers because reinforcements have been made too late in the day. The coach still has not closed his squad with the markets due to close at midnight on Wednesday. "We are working in a situation which isn't ideal, or good", he told reporters this afternoon.
Jémez went on to stress that he wasn't putting the blame on anyone, especially Technical Secretary Javier Torralbo, 'Piru' who "has been working 24 hours a day" and just hopes the final touches to his squad can be made as soon as possible.
"For me it's a problem when I have to field a right-back at left-back, an attacking midfielder out on the wing and a midfielder in central defence, like I did against Villarreal. All we are doing is putting our opponents at an advantage, and it will be the same tomorrow against Las Palmas - a team who closed their squad two weeks ago. It's not the ideal situation to work in", Jémez sighed.
The Granada coach, whose team picked up a point at home to Villarreal last weekend, had cautionary words to say about Las Palmas' attacking virtues: "They're a very good side technically, and that allows them to play a very exuberant style of football - against Valencia they were close to 100 per cent in effectiveness in attack; Las Palmas are complicated - they are dynamic and difficult and base their game on talent and positioning. We'll need to show personality, there is no other way around it, and give them a hard time when they're on the ball".
As for the situation concerning centre-forward José Angulo, who tested positive for cocaine in an anti-doping control, Jémez said: "These things happen and there are not nice for anyone. The lads are doing what they can to try to help him and we'll see what happens. It's caught all of us by surprise, but every one of us has to be responsible for our own actions. It's out of our hands now but we are here for him for whatever help he needs".