FCBARCELONA.CAT

30.08.2009 22:03

Guardiola: "We have to win it again"

Anna Segura

Pep Guardiola believes that FC Barcelona are having to start from the beginning as he prepares his team to meet Sporting Gijón on Monday evening in the opening game of the league season.

The Blaugrana boss guided his team to the championships last term, but has already put that behind him and is now looking ahead to a fresh season. "Now we have to start from scratch and try to win it again," he said. "Now every team will want to play against and beat the side that won everything. But we will have to attempt to win every match ourselves."

Respect for all opponents

Barça and Sporting will be the last two teams to kick off their league campaigns as the game was put back due to the European Super Cup final. Guardiola looked ahead and weighed up who will challenge for the title. "There are a lot of teams that could do great things," he explained. "We must show humility and respect to every other team. Any team can beat us on their day and if they do then we will know that it has been our fault."

The physical state of the team

After playing in the heat in Monaco when the European Super Cup went into extra time, Guardiola revealed that the staff had looked at the state of all the players. "We have analysed them all to see how they are," he stated. "The game has had an effect, but those that play on Monday will give everything."

Chygrynskiy’s arrival

Dmytro Chygrynskiy joined FC Barcelona on Monday and thanked the club for the perseverence that they showed in landing him from Shakhtar Donetsk. "He has come to play in a position where we did not have enough players," Guardiola commented. "He is a player that has won the UEFA Cup, he is young and has spent three or four seasons playing in the Champions League as well as being a regular in his league. This was not decided on the spur of the moment. We have watched him a lot, in important games, and we decided that he would be a very interesting signing for us."

No Robinho

Guardiola then denied that Barça were looking to sign Robinho from Manchester City and explained that he felt that his squad was "virtually complete".

Number one

When asked about Lionel Messi and what he could do this term, Guardiola was once again full of praise. "He can be the best and has all the virtues needed to be the number one."