Our captain Antonio Raíllo spoke to club media ahead of the new season getting underway to share his thoughts on the campaign ahead. Find out what he had to say below:
“The feelings are positive. I think that in pre-season the team has responded well. It is assimilating concepts little by little. It's a big change to go from a line of five to a line of four. Different concepts, movements, mechanisms... but I think the first test is going to be tough and we have to be ready for it.”
“It changes a bit radically in the sense of systems, but basically the footballer today is autonomous. He knows how to interpret certain movements and things. The coach asks you to do that: to think for yourself, to be more autonomous in a certain way and to play based on the movements that are happening on the field and you coordinate with them and know how to decide for yourself.”
“That it's an almost perfect game, that you have a very good day and they have a bad day at the same time. It is clear that they have a lot of individual talent and any one of their players can make a decisive play and define the game completely. So we have to be very supportive, which I think we are. We have that Mallorca DNA, especially in recent years. The team fights like a family, we all go together as one and that solidarity both offensively and defensively means that the team is always close to scratching something. Then, we come back to the same thing. You play your game. Give them as little space as possible. Sometimes if you have to stop them so that they don't have so much rhythm, then stop them. And from there, take advantage of the opportunities you have.”
“I think something that has been growing as the club has grown has been the fans. It is very noticeable when they are there, especially when they are on our side and support us. They are the twelfth player. Not only with us, which is noticeable in Son Moix, but in any team, in any stadium. I think that in that aspect a very positive atmosphere was created in the year of Segunda B, when a very close relationship was created between players and fans. And since then, many more people have become involved. Honestly, they get involved. You walk down the street and they encourage you, they support you, they wrap you up in their arms. Whether you like it or not, you feel loved. Not only by me, but by all my team-mates. You experience that personally, but you also transmit it to your teammates when you're in the locker room.”
“Yes, regardless of whether it's Madrid or not, I think that starting the league with a positive result is important. More than anything because we have a complicated schedule at the beginning. So I think that anything that adds up is good so that later on you don't have to look back.”
“Yes, the truth is that it's difficult nowadays, with so much information around, for any team in Spain or abroad not to want us. It's easy to sign a player. And it's complicated to stay in one place for so many years. It is clear that in the end it has been for both of us, mine and the club's, that we are already in our ninth season and the ones that are still ahead of us. I am very happy here. The club wanted me to stay, I also wanted to stay and in the end when two parties tend to understand each other, they understand each other. So I'm very happy.”
“When you come here you come with a very different challenge than what has happened. This was a team that was made to go up to LaLiga and ended up going down to Second Division B. Then, in that year, which was a bit complicated, the tables were turned completely upside down. In the end you end up looking back and see, every cloud has a silver lining. I'm glad that all that happened so that today I can enjoy where we are.”