Setién: "It's possible the players are not grasping certain things"
“…or maybe there are things that we have not explained well. Today we were well below par" affirmed the new Barcelona coach on Barça TV.
Quique Setién spoke to Barça TV after his sides 2-0 defeat at Mestalla before fulfilling his media commitments in the post match press conference.
-Was 2-0 a fair scoreline?
-We played really bad in the first half to be honest and we were slow to pick men up allowing Valencia to hit us on the break on at least four or five times. There is plenty of us to take from the first 45 minutes and there things which we don't quite understand. It's possible that we haven't conveyed the concepts as clearly as possible or things need to be understood in a different way. We fared better in the second half but were unable to find that opening goal. If anything, Valencia probably deserved more in the first half and we really were poor.
See also: Barcelona player ratings as Setién's men beaten in Valencia
Setién then faced the gathered press corps at the post match press conference.
What bothers you more about the defeat? Your failure to communicate a game-plan to the players?
There were things that certainly picked up on today or badly interpreted. We failed to connect with long balls and that's not the way we've been working. We need to work on these errors and we would have been happy with a half-time scoreline of 0-0. We improved in the second half but far from enough. Credit to Valencia who are a fine side and were able to punish us today.
Will Vidal leave?
I already stated on how I would not comment on the transfer market. There's nothing to say that I haven't said before.
Can you understand the club asking for Rodrigo on loan?
The only thing I can say about Rodrigo is that he is a fine player and I'd have preferred not to have to face him today.
Why has De Jong's form dropped off so dramatically?
That is your opinion but it's fair to say that this lack of understanding is throughout the team. Frenkie has played in a certain way for the past few months and now we're asking him to do something different.