Real Betis Balompié head coach has given a press conference prior to the Copa del Rey match against Real Sporting de Gijon. Pepe Mel has expressed the excitement among the squad to perform well in this competition.

First leg against Real Sporting de Gijon. Will there be rotations?: “First of all, we have a squad made up by 29 footballers. You need to try to make them active and share efforts. Obviously, having players that don’t participate much and other playing every three days is not very clever. We’ll decide based on the last trainings before the match to see how they are. There are some men that won’t play because they are injured and other are just unlucky. For example, it was the perfect match for Fabián, but he was unlucky to fall injury a few days ago.”

Is using players that are not playing much like ‘throwing away' Copa del Rey?: “I guess we are throwing it away then. You just have to check the squad of all the other teams to see that they are doing the same. We are not facing the same rivals. I have to try to manage the efforts of the players and their mental fitness. In a squad as big as the one we have we can’t have 13 players out all the time, that’s something negative.”

Excitement for Copa del Rey: “La Liga is a long competition based on consistency. Copa del Rey is a beautiful competition: it’s shorter and you get the chance to play a final. We all want to live that experience, the fans, the board, the coaches and the players. All the teams would give a lot to play the Copa del Rey final, specially teams like Real Betis, that have been there before.”

Moment for the less-usual players: “We have 29 players which means that every time I have to give the list for a match, I have to let 11 players out. That isn’t good. It’s a good moment to connect with the fans and for the players to show they are good, and they are. Also to see the fitness level of all of them and to get aboard for La Liga. There are many things at stake in this match, like players that must tell the manager ‘here I am.’ Let’s hope it happens that way. It would make things even more complicated for me, but a beautiful complication.”

Copa del Rey and La Liga, two matches at home this week: “They are different. In Copa del Rey there are two matches in every round. Nothing it’s going to be solved in the first leg, we need to go to El Molinón Stadium to finish it. Then we have the match against RC Celta de Vigo on Saturday, and we’ll need to show that we can make ourselves strong at home. They are two different competitions and different ways of preparing them, in sipite of playing two matches in the same week at home.”