FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.08.2007 14:33

Iniesta: “We have to be self-critical”

Marc Guillén

At Monday’s post-training press conference, Andrés Iniesta was critical about the team’s performance in Santander, claiming the players had been slow and lacking in spark: “We have to be self-critical. Yesterday we played a bad match”.

The Spanish international midfielder was disappointed with Sunday’s performance in the goalless draw against Racing but stressed that the team would improve. “With our day-to-day work and with training I’m convinced the team will reach it’s best standard”.

“We lacked spark and pace and that meant we didn’t play well. That’s why we have to be self-critical. Yesterday we played a bad match”. According to Iniesta, the main reason for the poor performance in Santander was the large volume of work done in the pre-season leading to a lack of freshness and pace: “This means that the team isn’t quite right. We lack movement in attack and that has to be improved”.

Optimistic

However, Iniesta, who broke through into the first team from the youth ranks of the Club, is optimistic about the season ahead despite the disappointment of the opening draw: “You have to take something positive from everything that is bad. These things can go well because now we know that every game will be difficult to win. I like to take the positive aspects from all negative things and if that helps us to learn then it’s welcome. Last year, thinking that we would win every match easily killed us off. I hope that doesn’t happen this year”.