Josep Guardiola has explained that he believes that at this stage of the season the most important thing is “to try and not lose”. The Blaugrana coach believes that chalking up consecutive victories means that “winning becomes a routine”.
The Barça trainer also wanted to emphasis that in the short-term that he would be focussed on the
next match, against Deportivo, and the training sessions beforehand. “We have to focus on
what is immediately in front of us,” he continued. “We cannot lok to far ahead and
think that we have done it. There are still many points to play for, 60 in fact.”
Great attitude
One of the things that Guardiola likes most at the moent is
the team's attitude going into matches: “What makes me the most happy is that the players go
out to win from the first minute, like we did against Atlético de Madrid despite winning the first
leg 1-3, and that we generate so many chances.”
No piensan en el récord
Asked about the possible record number of points in the first half of the season that
Barcelona could achieve Guardiola said that he prefers to not think about things like that.
“I am not someone who thinks about things like this,” he said. “In the last few
weeks I have said nothing about these records.”
Depor games
On this weekend's opponents, Guardiola stated that he believes Deportivo have “some
very talented” players. “They all know how to play and they want to play. They have a
very good structure in place.”
Miguel Ángel Lotina's declarations that Depor were prepared for the loss, Guardiola
was incredulous. “I do not believe it,” he commented. “A first division coach has
prepares his team to win every game. Maybe he is trying to weaken us. Lotina is a wily cat.”
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“Perea tackle could have caused damage”
Josep Guardiola did not hold back when talking about the hard tackles on Lionel Messi during the
Copa del Rey game against Atlético de Madrid. “There are kicks and then there are kicks and
the other day they could have caused damage,” he explained. “The referee is the judge,
but Messi is a player that rarely complains. When they are going in too strongly that is when the
referee has to intervene and that is what happened.”