Zaragoza vs Osasuna preview - Jimenez calls for consistency

Real Zaragoza manager Manolo Jimenez is hoping for better consistency from his side in the coming weeks.

Jimenez's men have won only one of their first four games and go into this weekend's clash with local rivals Osasuna having not beaten Los Rojillos in seven attempts stretching back five years.

However, the former Sevilla boss believes their late additions in the transfer window could have had an impact on their slow start.

He told the club's website: "We want to pick up a consistent dynamic in our results. The team has to grow a lot more and it can do so.

"We are at a disadvantage to the rest because there are players who were incorporated into the squad late and they are in the process of adapting to what we want. We are going to improve with training sessions and with the matches."

Jimenez is still without the injured trio of Glen Loovens, Ivan Obradovic and Adam Pinter but Apono is expected to return to the starting line-up after only being fit enough for a place on the bench in last weekend's defeat at Real Sociedad.

Osasuna meanwhile have had an even poorer run to start the campaign with only one point from their first four games, but manager Jose Luis Mendilibar insists no one in his dressing room is panicking just yet.

He told the club's website: "We are good. We speak about the games the next day to try and correct our errors, the day after we rest and then we prepare for the next game, thinking more about ourselves than the opponent. If we look at the table we see that we are last so we don't look at it."

"You always want to win, but if you don't, there must be a reason. We have to learn to compete a little better, we have to compete to win. We will do all that we can to win, but I won't speak of finals because the finals arrive when there are no more games left."

The visitors will be without the suspended pair of Patxi Punal and Joseba Llorente so Kike Sola could start for the first time this season in attack and Anthony Annan may return after being rested following his international commitments with Ghana last weekend.