FCBARCELONA.CAT

09.03.2010 14:45

Alves: “We are strong and we won’t sink”

Anna Segura

Dani Alves knows that his team will not be affected by comments coming from off the pitch that seem to want to demoralise them. “We will fight until the end for this club to win titles” he said.

Few members of the FC Barcelona squad tell it quite as straight as Dani Alves and he was in a typically defiant mood today when he faced the press at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

High standards

The Brazilian did not deny that the team has lost some its spark of late, but said “we have set a very high standard and now we are like slaves to that … but we have to overcome such difficulties .. we have to charge our batteries and liven up. If we don’t go full out, we won’t win”.

But Alves is optimistic about the future, saying “We are strong and we won’t sink. We will fight until the end for this club to win titles”.

All to be decided

Madrid have displaced Barça from the top of the table, but Alves doesn’t see any need to read too much into that.. “At the end of the first half of the season, I said that they’re not going to hand Barça the title on a plate, so neither have we lost it now we are not leaders. It’ll be decided in the last few games … if they want to be champions they’re going to have to work hard because we’ll be doing the impossible to make sure they don’t get there”.

Rectification of Almeria reds

As for the sendings off of Guardiola and Ibrahimovic in Almeria, the full back said “when we make mistakes, we have to rectify ourselves. I didn’t think the action (by Ibrahimovic) was worthy of a sending off. If they did, it’s because they made a mistake and the proper thing would be to take the red away”.

More football and less controversy

“We are speaking too much about things we shouldn’t. The protagonists should be the team, the players, the goals...” Alves went on to make a powerful speech about the exaggerated coverage the media gives to refereeing decisions. He said “you shouldn’t go over these things too much otherwise you just get frustrated. There is much more to football than the ‘Villarato’. There are nicer, more fun things than whether a referee favoured one team or the other. Football is much better than that”.

Support for Ibra and Henry

Alves also spoke in defence of his colleagues Ibrahimovic and Henry, who have been criticised for a drop in form. “There is no need to be so drastic and pessimistic in football. The important thing is for this not to affect them. Hard work is what changes this … we have to help players that aren’t on top of their game. We cannot knock them for not working hard enough”.