I'm not making any comparisons between this season and last season. It's over last year. Many actors gave us an outstanding performance, but they left because they decided on it. And now different players have arrived. We try to get them to combine mechanisms and build relationships with their teammates. We want to give them the confidence to achieve the performance we expect. We are happy with the cast, but there are some who left and some players will not be able to reach their performances for a few weeks. I am happy and we have a very good team. I don't know if we will be better or worse, the matches will show.

The match will be very competitive. We saw Betis' pre-season performances. A great team. A well-run team with some different approaches to ours but quality players. Of course they will endanger us at some moments, but if we are good with and without the ball we can hurt them. Despite the fact that we will face a lot of difficulties because they are a great team, I hope we can work the game in our favor.

It always gives us ambition to improve what was done in the previous season. We have focused everything on improvement, but there is a reality to be understood. It's because the requests go hand in hand with the economic part and there are six or seven clubs that are way above us in terms of possibilities to bring in reinforcements. Let's see which squad we're in on August 31st and what the expectations are. I can't evaluate the roster until August 31st. If we want to be a competitive team, we still have a shortage of players. Important players have left, and there are positions that are not completely covered, especially in the field of creativity. Fekir's complement, Isco, has arrived, but we are lacking in creative football players. We're trying to structure a roster that still needs tweaking to be a competitive team.

I see that the pre-match group is determined. There is a good fit and we have fans who support us to death. We feel that responsibility this season. We have to face the awareness that it is a six-point match to directly challenge the European positions. The first three points are just as important as the last three. Awareness that achievements are lost by one or two points must be achieved from the first game.