Marcel Licka: "I want the players to be well prepared both physically and mentally."

— Jorge Carrascal was put on the bench, Nicolas Marichal did not go on the road trip. Did you have any desire to give them less time to rest so they could return to games earlier?— No, because our training started in January, then the second part of the season passed, and Jorge and Nico immediately went to the America's Cup, where they played until the end of the tournament. So they deserved their rest. While Jorge is physically better prepared, I can let him play for about 20 minutes today. We have a lot of games ahead of us, so I don't want to rush anywhere and I want these players to be well prepared both physically and mentally. I am sure that they had a good rest for two weeks and are now ready to work and benefit the team.

— Diego Laxalt is in the squad. What is his condition? Can he appear on the field?

— Diego had an individual plan, joined the team on Thursday and trained calmly yesterday. Today he will start the match as a substitute, but may appear in the second half. We'll see how things go.

— Compared to the 2nd round match, you have three changes. What caused this rotation?

— It is clear that young players had a lot of emotions in the first two matches, but it is difficult to play the whole season with 4-5 youngsters in the lineup: it is hard to keep concentration and maintain a high level of play. Skopintsev played against Spartak, he is physically well prepared, so today he is in the starting lineup.

We have cup matches where we can use rotation, and that's good because we have healthy competition in our team. If someone plays 2-3 good matches, they should not think that they will automatically take the field until the end of the season.