Unai Emery has warned his Sevilla players that the hard work starts now, despite their 2-1 victory over Barcelona in La Liga on Saturday.
Goals from Michael Krohn-Dehli and Vicente Iborra gave the Coach his first-ever win against the Catalans in 22 attempts, despite Neymar’s response from the penalty spot, yet he made it clear that his side still had room for significant improvement.
“Opportunities [of more wins] are on their way. It’s always difficult to beat Barcelona, so [the win] is very positive,” he said after the game.
“The players, more or less, found synergies in their game. The team also found strength and came to compete.
“We must start improving again because we have new players. We’re a different team.
“There are things we did last season which aren’t working, so we’re still looking for solutions, but we did some of those things [on Saturday].
“We’ve reached eight points, but we’re still not where we want to be.
“Barcelona normally have more chances to win, but we made things difficult for them.
“Even if we had less chances, we were more clinical, plus we had Sergio Rico [making numerous saves] – another positive for us.
“There is a small difference [to this season from last], which is the manner in which we compete.
“We were a chameleon and winning team last season. This season, there are some aspects that we’re lacking in.
“We’d also have won the game in Turin [against Juventus] last season, so we must find more attacking solutions.
“Our opponents [on Saturday] were totally different as Barcelona gave us a completely different type of pressure. We seek balance in every game.
“[Sergio Rico] is still in the process [of becoming a top goalkeeper] but now has to repeat performances like his [against Barca].
“He was born here and progressed from our youth system, and all sevillistas [specifically goalkeepers] must want to be Sevilla’s goalkeeper.
“I want [Steven N’Zonzi] to work on improving his performances if he wants to be important for us.
“In the future, with his height, I want him to become an important part of our set pieces.”
