Robert Dante Siboldi, coach of Santos Laguna, believes that his team still has a lot to improve, especially in the football idea that he wants to develop for a better performance in each match.
"We are still at 40 or 50 percent of the idea that I have personally with my coaching staff of how I want the team to play, with all due respect. We have achieved results, but we need to keep improving, there are periods where we don't have control of the game, we struggle in the beginning of matches, of course, always respecting the opponent, it is not taken as arrogance."
"Sometimes we rush to quickly reach the opponent's goal when there is no clarity or a teammate to pass to, we lack the reaction to losing the ball."
"When we started on December 5th, we said we were going to arrive fully prepared for the first match, there are no excuses here, one thing is how the team is physically and tactically, and another is the idea of the game," he explained.
Siboldi acknowledged that he didn't imagine that Santos would be so close to having their best tournament in short tournaments.
"First, we need to build a football idea that would give us the possibility of playing well and earning points. Sometimes that takes time, luckily we have an excellent squad that immediately assimilated that idea and tried to put it into practice. It's a good tournament, we achieved the first objective, now we go for the next one."
And regarding the fans' excitement for an albiverde title, the coach pointed out that it's valid because "we cannot take away anyone's dream of reaching a final and winning it, we desire that, it's what we work and prepare for, I think we need to have a strong finish to the tournament to arrive in a better position for the next tournament, which is the playoffs."
Expects a tough match against Pachuca
The Santos coach mentioned that practically all the matches in the second half of the tournament have something at stake, either for relegation or qualification.
"Querétaro had the possibility of being in the top eight if they won, now Pachuca is in eighth place and also has the chance to win at home to keep climbing to qualify, the same for Pumas and América is to see in which position we end up, but they are all competitive and with a clear objective. The next objective is to be champions, we aim to have an excellent playoff in order to achieve it," he explained.
He detailed that Pachuca is dynamic and has fast players from midfield onwards, "they are slower in defense, they struggle more there, but in attack they quickly counterattack, they have a clear idea of what they play, they are a good team with good players and a great coach who has won championships."
For this match, the Uruguayan coach will have Osvaldo Martínez back, but he hasn't decided yet whether he will put him in the lineup against Tuzos or stick with De Buen.
"We don't know yet, we have the possibility of other options because there are players who are asking for a chance and this is the moment." Furch, he said "is better, not completely fit, but he is waiting to fully recover to travel this Friday."