On Monday afternoon, David Villa gave his first press conference since he started training as a Barça player. He revealed that he’s itching to get out on the pitch and put himself at Guardiola’s disposal for the return leg of the Super Cup.
Next Saturday, when the Camp Nou hosts the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup, it’ll be
exactly three months since Villa put pen to paper on the deal which brought him to FC Barcelona.
It’s been a long wait and the Spanish international striker can’t wait to compete for
his new club. However, with just a few days training under his belt he knows that he can’t
afford to overstretch himself. As he told the assembled reporters: “It’ll be a long
season”.
Debut still a doubt
Villa, along with the rest of his international team-mates that had to
delay their return to training, has still not caught up with the rest of the squad in terms of
match fitness: “We’ve got a week ahead of us to train. We’ve only just started
but I’ll try and get fit for the manager as soon as possible. “I’m really keen to
compete at 100%, to train and to get moving on this new stage of my career”.
A fight back is possible
Villa is convinced Barça are good enough to overturn the deficit from
the first leg of the Super Cup: “It was an unfavourable result but Barça have made a thousand
comebacks like this. I believe we can turn the tie around. We’ve played half a final and the
score is against us. But the other half is in the Camp Nou, in front of the Barça fans, fans who
want a fight back, and Barça is a team that can overcome that score line, not just against Sevilla
but against any team in the world”.
No goal targets
David Villa is a bit too superstitious to set himself a goal target for
the season: “I hope that with work and the help of my team-mates, I can score as many goals
as possible, to the benefit of Barça.”
Asked if he can play in any other position apart from centre forward, Villa explained:
“I can perform pretty well out on the left. I’m aware of my team-mates and the
positions I can play in to help the team”. Finally, he assured reporters that he would be
completely “compatible” with Ibrahimovic.
Images: Miguel Ruiz - FCB.
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Grateful for the reception
Villa is having no problem settling into the team given that he knows many of his team-mates from
the Spanish international squad. However, today he went out of his way to stress how well he has
been received into the squad: “Everybody I’ve just met is helping me a lot”.