Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke says his team cannot afford to fall nine points behind in the La Liga title race by losing next weekend's "dangerous derbi" at home to leaders Real Madrid.
Diego Simeone's Atletico team have lost two of their last three league games to slip to fifth in the table, six points behind Zinedine Zidane's unbeaten side, who are two points ahead of second-placed Barcelona at the head of the standings.
Ahead of the game at the Vicente Calderon on Saturday, Koke told Marca that a draw was the least his team could take from the game and they were setting out to get all three points.
"It is a dangerous derbi," Koke said. "We cannot let the gap get bigger. We need to draw at least so that they do not go further ahead. In our head we are thinking about winning the game, as always."
Koke said the 2016-17 season has so far been "a bit crazy" with lots of movement as the top teams have all dropped points.
"We were leaders, we lost [at Sevilla] and we dropped to fifth place," he said. "It is a bit crazy. In the first international break there was talk of relegation [from teammate Antoine Griezmann], in the second we were top, and now there are these doubts floating around."
Saturday's clash will be Atletico's first meeting with Madrid since May's second Champions League final defeat to their neighbours in just three years.
"These things stay with you your whole life," Koke said. "But they will make us stronger. Every Atletico fan wants to win a Champions League, this group deserves it for all it has battled. It is not that we are owed a Champions League, but we deserve it."
While in previous years Koke often played a wide midfield role, this season Simeone has regularly fielded him in a central position.
"All my life I have played in the centre, and I am more comfortable there," Koke said. "I have been working for many years on the wing, to reach this moment when I can play in my position -- in the centre. I believe the team's play has benefited from me playing centrally.
"We have more options, more possession. Defending is not just about me, it is the whole team. We have conceded at set pieces, against Malaga and Real [Sociedad]. I don't believe the team is defending badly, you saw that against Bayern [Munich in the Champions League]. We must apply ourselves to all attack, and all defend together."
Koke is under contract until 2019 and said he is planning on fulfilling that deal, while adding that you never know when a club might decide to sell a player.
"At the moment I am happy, lucky to be here," Koke said. "Why would I think about going anywhere else? But maybe in the future the club needs to sell and it would have to be done. I have a contract and I want to fulfil it."