Suso suggests personal rift led to Sevilla snub under Pimienta

Sevilla find themselves in a critical situation, one so dire that the club dispensed with Garcis Pimienta — a coach they had so heavily backed that they even handed him a contract extension despite poor results.

In the end, it has fallen to Caparros to try and steer the club away from the disaster of relegation — a topic nobody at the club wants to even contemplate.

Following a draw with Alaves and a defeat to Osasuna, Sevilla are now six matches without a win, having picked up just one point from a possible eighteen.

The tension surrounding the club is palpable, and it's beginning to show in the players' own remarks. Suso, now seeing more minutes under Caparros, didn't miss the chance to settle scores with Garcia Pimienta, who, he claimed, sidelined him for non-footballing reasons.

"I don't think the club or my teammates had anything to complain about in terms of my attitude," the Cadiz-born player said during a press conference. "Regarding the issue with Pimienta, I won't be harsh — I'll show him the respect he didn't show me," he added, pointedly.

"It wasn't a footballing matter; it was something personal between him and me, stemming from a conversation we had about training, basically. I was also taught that the club is always more important than the player, so I kept quiet this whole time, stayed on the sidelines, and didn't look for controversy," Suso explained.

With Caparros, things have been radically different: "On the first day, we had a conversation. We were both honest. He told me what he wanted, and I told him what I could offer. Since then, our relationship has been very good. We're in a difficult situation, and I think what matters now is that we all pull together — we're all in the same boat and want the same thing."

The Sevilla forward also commented on Dodi Lukebakio's much-discussed red card against Osasuna: "With Dodi's action, he's just running, using his arms — maybe the contact wasn't as much or as aggressive as it looked. The thing with VAR is that they show you everything in slow motion, zoomed in — it's very hard to judge. We need to interpret the game more naturally."

Finally, Suso spoke about the squad's mentality going into a crucial stretch: "The team is working well. In the first game under the new manager, we played well and could've won with a bit more sharpness in front of goal, which is maybe what we've been missing lately.

"And against Osasuna, even with ten men from early on, the team showed real fight. We even had three chances to equalise at the end. But Sunday's match is indeed absolutely vital — there's a lot at stake."