Quique Setién notices that the crowded program in La Liga cuts quite a bit in his players. The FC Barcelona trainer sees it as an explanation for Saturday’s difficult 0-1 win on Real Valladolid.
Thanks to a goal from Arturo Vidal, Barcelona took the lead early on, but then fell far away. In the final phase, goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen prevented the deserved equalizer with a few nice saves.
“At the end of the game, you saw that the team was tired,” said Setién, who also couldn’t have injured Frenkie de Jong on Saturday. “There was less than 72 hours between this game and the previous one against Espanyol. It was also very hot. You can see that many players are not fresh anymore.”
Setién therefore rejects criticism of his working method. “It is not a football problem. We play a lot of games, so there is a lot of fatigue in the team. A number of players have made a lot of minutes in recent weeks.”
The latter also applies to Lionel Messi, who would have liked to have brought Setién to the side earlier against Vallodolid. “But our lead was very tight. If we had scored more in the first half, more players would have rested”
“Griezmann asked for a switch himself”
Antoine Griezmann was a player who was left in the dressing room halfway through. The French striker played an unfortunate first half, in which he mowed the ball for an open goal.
According to Setién, that had nothing to do with the substitution. “His thigh was bothering him, so he asked for it himself.” On Sunday, Barcelona announced that Griezmann is suffering from a muscle injury and that there will certainly not be a next match.
Despite the victory over Real Valladolid, prolongation of the league title for Barcelona is far away. Real Madrid can make a gap of four points on Sunday with a win over Granada, with two more rounds ahead.
View the results, the program and the position in La Liga
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