Unai Emery met with the press at Bodymoor Heath on Monday afternoon, to look ahead to Aston Villa's midweek trip to Crystal Palace on Tuesday evening (ko 7.30pm).
The Villans travel to South London on the back of four-consecutive home outings in all competitions, looking for back-to-back wins after triumphing over Chelsea at Villa Park on Saturday.
Emery faced questions from the local and national media at Villa's training ground, where he discussed the strength and versatility of his squad, and what he expects from the trip to Selhurst Park.
Read the key lines from his pre-match press conference below...
On squad strength...
“We will see it. Of course, our idea always is to improve and to try to join. In different moments, the players can add us something different.
“But we have to build again the structure, we have to get improvements, tactically, individually in our way for the next weeks.
“Tomorrow is a very good test, how we are improving, how we are getting better.
“We are being demanding because it’s not enough, the way we are doing. But of course, we are excited, we are motivated, because we have in front a lot of challenges.”
On versatility...
“Lamare Bogarde, he is helping us. At the beginning of the season when we needed it, really doing a very great job, always.
“He did the same on Saturday against Chelsea. Of course, his personality is very important.
“We are conceding a lot of goals, we are not being strong defensively like we were in our best moments, and we have to try to use the matches we have, the challenges we have, to try to get it as better as possible in our progress, because in case we are not doing it, it’s going to be very difficult to achieve our objective.”
On Crystal Palace...
“They are performing very well. They started in the beginning not getting good results, but progressively they were getting better.
“We played against them two times here at Villa Park and it was very tough matches. We lost, we drew, but they performed very well.
“They are performing overall very well in the league, maybe even better away, getting a lot of points.
“At home, maybe they lost some matches, but they deserved more, because we analysed, we watched it, and they were performing like when we played against them and they could win those matches, they lost the last matches at home, against Everton, against Brentford.
“Tactically, it is difficult to stop them, because their structure is so, so strong, their structure tactically, offensively.
“Defensively as well, they have individually strong players getting a lot of duels and winning duels. The goalkeeper as well is playing fantastic.
“I respect them a lot, I respect their coach a lot, I respect always away playing matches in the Premier League always is very difficult.
“We have our own challenge away to compete better, and tomorrow is a really good test.
“I am excited. I want to see how we are responding, collectively and individually the players, and how we can as well, more or less there, impose our gameplan.”
On qualifying for Europe...
“Still matches to play. It depends, tomorrow, how we are responding, now the league is progressively passing and the matches still to play is less.
“Of course, we have to try to recover a little bit some points we lost, but in case we are not getting points, it will be more difficult.
“But we are positive, and we are more or less trying to build strong again our structure tactically, mentally, with the players we added for the last transfer window.
“We will need time as well… but each day, each match, is a test, it’s a real challenge for us.
“Now we are in the moment, we can’t waste time, doing all our best.
“I am not analysing it (how many points are needed). I am analysing the match tomorrow, the three points tomorrow.
“I don’t know how much points we will need, but tomorrow of course is very important.”
Watch the boss' full pre-match press conference below.
