Deportivo Coach Jose Luis Oltra wants no excuses as his team travel south to play Granada in the heat of Andalusia on Sunday afternoon.
The 4pm local time kick-off at Los Carmenes means the heat will be on for Depor as the Segunda Division champions look to continue their unbeaten start to life back in La Primera.
But Oltra preferred to focus on the qualities of the opposition when asked if the temperature could have an adverse affect on his side on Sunday.
“We should forget any controversy surrounding the kick-off time, the referee, our opponents, or of us being enemies to the style of [Juan Antonio] Anquela’s team.
“Granada are dangerous opponents, and are in urgent need of points,” Oltra said of a team who have collected just one point thus far and were beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid in their last outing.
“They deserve more points than they have, but the reality is they only have one and that makes them more dangerous.
“That means we will have to play really well to get all three points, because they will not make life easy for us. The heat is not an excuse.”
Oltra, who must do without Diogo Salomao and Laure for the game, but includes Ze Castro for the first time this season, wants his Depor side to play in the style that helped them win promotion last season.
“I am conditioned by everything. I value everything, but I want Deportivo to have their own identity, to play their own way rather than adapt to our opponents all the time,” he said.
“But on the other hand you still must acknowledge the other team and adapt in certain respects both in attack and in defence.
“These little things can condition you, but we will try to impose our style and used the weapons that we have used in the past to help us beat any team on any ground.”
Oltra added that Portuguese duo Pizzi and Nelson Oliveira and Colombia's Abel Aguilar all returned from international duty in good shape and should feature in Granada.
“They are fine. The Portuguese guys have taken part in two training sessions while Abel is, logically, a little more tired because he had further to travel and played for longer, but he wants to play and I don't think that will be a problem.”
