Barcelona manager
Ernesto Valverde was heavily criticized following the release of Barcelona's
line-up against Atletico Bilbao with Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets being
surprise absentees. Valverde has explained why he benched Messi and Busquets.
Valverde's response as quoted by Football Espana is: "When I make the decision, I think about what's best
for my team and for my club."
"I always do that before playing games, I can't do
it afterwards or rewind.
"Fans can decide what they think is convenient, but
I need to think about the best for my team.
"It's my absolute responsibility, we have four
games in 10 days [actually 11] and I thought that Leo and Busquets had to rest
knowing that we have a very difficult match on Wednesday.
"I knew it was a risky decision, but if it had
gone well, you wouldn't be asking me about it."
Both Messi
and Busquets were however called up in the second half as Valverde went all in to try and make a comeback following the goal
scored by Oscar de Marcos for Atletico Bilbao. Messi had to come off the bench
to help his team scrape a 1-1 draw during their home game against Atletico
Bilbao on Saturday September 29. The Blaugrana No. 10 hit the woodwork for the
seventh time this season as Barcelona chased an equalizer in desperation,
eventually providing the pass for Munir El Haddadi's 84th-minute
equalizer.
Barcelona had
an unfruitful expedition against Girona last weekend, with a 2-2 draw and faced a
surprising 2-1 defeat in the hands of Leganes on Wednesday.
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| Pique makes up for defensive errors with an equalizing goal against Girona |
Messi,
Barcelona's captain has expressed the disappointment felt by the La Liga champions
at their performance in their past three games. Messi said Barcelona urgently
needed to revamp their defense, having conceded eight goals in only seven games
this season.
Messi told
reporters: We are not anxious because the
season is long and has only just started, but we are angry about the last
results. We didn’t expect them.
“Against Leganes we played well in the first half and
lost, and today we created chances to win but couldn’t.”
Messi who took over captaincy from Iniesta this
season added, “We are aware that we have to be much stronger
defensively. “Last year we hardly conceded goals but now teams are scoring
against us with their first attempt. We cannot afford to concede goals in every
game. “We have to improve and become stronger in defense, which is the
most important thing.”
Barcelona forward Luis Suarez, also criticized the
team's performance and said they had to get over relying on their
all-time top scorer (Messi) all the time. Suarez said: “He is the best in
the world but we can’t rely on Leo to always sort everything out for us.”
“The other players here are here on our own merits and
we can’t depend on him or Busquets, we should have been winning when they came
on to the pitch.”
Messi agreed with Suarez when he was asked about the
latter's comments., and further added: “We have the squad and the players
to be a great team and not depend on anyone, like it always used to be at
Barca.
photo credit image 1: Getty Images
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