Manolo González has put RCD Espanyol on alert before Friday night’s Espanyol Vs Elche meeting at the RCDE Stadium, warning that his side cannot afford another slow start or a repeat of the glaring errors that hurt them the other day. The coach said the team must be at their best if they want to secure the three points.
The match is drawing attention because Espanyol are back in action on a quick turnaround, and González made clear the timing leaves no room for drift. He said the group need to find the balance that has sometimes eluded them when starting matches, pointing to the kind of performance they produced in the second half the other day and in Pamplona against Osasuna as the standard they now have to hit from the first whistle.
González’s message was blunt: Espanyol cannot go into the game without being fully focused. He said too many mistakes cost them last time out, and he linked that warning to a lesson from last year’s visit to Alavés, when Espanyol produced a terrible first half, went in trailing at the break and still spent the entire second period in the opposition’s half. The coach’s point was not that the reaction was absent, but that it arrived too late to change the result.
That balance between improvement and frustration sits at the heart of his read on the team. González said the dressing room mood is good and the group remain strong, but he also admitted the players were frustrated by the first-half showing the other day, with himself included in that assessment. He said Espanyol are fully capable of creating chances, noting they generated opportunities against both the previous opponent and in Pamplona, even if the task was harder against Sevilla. In his view, that leaves the side in better shape at this stage of the season than in previous years, but only if they stop giving away the kind of openings that invite trouble.
Elche, he added, are not coming to make the night easy. González pointed to their comeback against Racing from a 3–0 deficit and their 2–2 fightback against Real Madrid before conceding in stoppage time as proof that they have strong qualities and can recover in a match that looks lost. For Espanyol, that means the margin for error is thin. Friday night is less about promise than execution, and González has made the equation clear: stay switched on, avoid the early lapses and perform properly, or the points will go elsewhere.
