Ernesto Valverde has warned Athletic Bilbao that Las Palmas can cause them “problems” ahead of Sunday’s meeting at San Mames.
Los Leones can break into La Liga’s top six with a third successive win, but the Coach feels his side have their work cut out if they are to displace Deportivo La Coruna in the table.
“If we let [Las Palmas] take the initiative, we’ll have problems,” he said at a Press conference.
“Las Palmas are a team who try to play football and beat Granada convincingly [4-1] in their last match.
“They try to play from the back and have both good outlets and a very good goalkeeper.
“From a technical point of view, they have important players. They’re a little different to other teams.
“They try to dominate you and take charge of the game, and in situations with little space, they have important players who move well, such as Jonathan Viera, [Sergio] Araujo and Tana.
“If we’re caught out near our goal, we’ll have problems.
“Roque Mesa in midfield will be a big loss for them, but we also have significant casualties, such as Aymeric [Laporte] and Benat [Etxebarria].
“We must try to impose our style of high pace and intensity on them, reach 30 points and get as close to our targets as possible.
“We always have desires which go beyond the day-to-day and we want to achieve great things, but the main thing is to focus on [Sunday’s] game and we want to sustain the victory we achieved in Vigo.
“We have a very busy week coming up, with three games [Las Palmas, Villarreal at home and Sevilla away], and little room of recovery between them.”
