Arbeloa: "It's fundamental for our LaLiga aspirations to beat Rayo"

Álvaro Arbeloa spoke to the media in the press room at Real Madrid City and discussed the match against Rayo Vallecano, on matchday 22 of LaLiga ( Sunday, 2pm): "It's a very important game and fundamental for our league aspirations to beat a team that is always very uncomfortable, pressing and aggressive. Everyone knows Rayo Vallecano's identity and they are going to make it difficult for us. We are very focused on giving our best to win the three points."
 
"I expect a Bernabéu crowd that will be with the team, as they were at the last home game. They know we need them. I always ask the Bernabéu for their support, because we are much stronger with them. They know that our objective, obviously, is to win and to continue in the fight for the league, which we are fighting very hard and with a lot of desire. If we want to stay there, we need them. When we are united, what we are capable of doing, the confidence they give the players; with them (the fans) everything is much easier."
 
Carvajal and Ceballos
"With Carvajal, my main objective is that he can have continuity and go, surely, a little slower than I should go. My main objective is that he can have continuity in training, that he can get more minutes and that he doesn't relapse into injury. For me, not only with Carvajal, but with all the players coming back from injury, I like to go little by little, with patience, knowing that the demand is maximum in every game we are playing. I'm seeing him getting better every day, with a good feeling in training; each time completing more demanding training sessions and knowing that we need a little bit of time to see Carvajal at his best."
 
"It's the same with Dani Ceballos. We all know about his qualities and conditions. He is a profile that we always need to have in the squad. I'm sure he's going to be very important between now and the rest of the season, because of his qualities and because he can give us a lot of things."

Consistency and hard work
"We are working to find the consistency we want in the game and at all levels. Right now is neither a time for disenchantment nor a time for euphoria. It is time for work. That's all.”
 
Resting Vini Jr, Bellingham, Mbappé, Valverde and Courtois
"I understand the football debates. But I always want to have the best players on the pitch. The more minutes they can play for me, at the disposal of the team, the better. We saw it, for example, in Villarreal: with two minutes left in stoppage time, Mbappé's goal came from a very good move by Vinícius Jr, who went inside, turned the play and found Mbappé, who was awarded a penalty. These are players who are capable of deciding a match at any minute. There will be people who aren't Madrid fans who don't want them on the pitch. I imagine that Madrid fans want their best players to always be available and on the pitch. The five players you said are players who, on a world level, can be in the top ten. They have my full confidence. It's not my confidence, it's their performance that puts them on the field.”
 
Do you feel a sense of revenge when facing Benfica again?
"Rayo Vallecano.”
 
Upcoming weeks
"As I told you, right now it's time to work. There are two weeks coming now where we are going to be able to work at all levels, and that's what we want, what we wanted and what we were looking for. I've had 18-19 days, practically with a match every three days, without having much time to work. What we are looking for is to be able to have time with the players to work, to improve and to get better every day. That's what's going to come ahead of us and that's what we're focused on.”
 
Are there two facets of the team?
"We are working hard, analysing a lot what we have to do to find the consistency at all levels that we want to have, I am sure we are going to get there. Obviously, we need that time to work, to find that consistency and that optimum performance that we want to have in every game we play. Of course, that's our goal.”
 
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Internalising his idea of the game
"I am very grateful to the players for how they have received us and how they have had the interest and involvement to want to understand what we want from them, practically without being able to work on the pitch. No matter how much we explain to them what we want and how much we teach them, when a football player really gets to internalise what a coach wants is on the pitch and it is by training together. That's what we're lacking right now: hours of training, getting to know each other and working. That's what we're going to have ahead of us, what we're looking forward to and I'm very confident that things will go well. We're going to get to the level we want, we're going to understand each other, players and coaching staff. Above all, our main objective is to get the best out of this great squad."
 
Finding the right level
"We are thinking about the Rayo game. We are aware of how difficult the game is and how demanding a team like Rayo is going to be for us. We also saw it in the first leg. That's what we're focused on: finding that high level again, continuing to improve, working and knowing that everyone's performance, on a general and individual level, needs to be very high to win every game. It's not just us but any team in the world today if they want to win a game; they have to be at a very high level both collectively and individually. That's our goal.”
 
Learning from defeats
"Regret is a dead end. I always try to learn from mistakes and failures, as they say. That's the most important thing, when things don't go well, to learn. That's my way as a coach; to try to know where I can improve and where I haven't got it right. Obviously, I'm the first one to tell the players that I'm going to make mistakes. I'm sure I will make many mistakes because I have to make a lot of decisions. But every decision I make will be for the good of the team. That's what I always do and that's what I will continue to do."
 
Message to the group
“I understand that you would like to know, but that's between me and the group.”