Quique Setién: "I'd love to be able to coach Neymar some day"
The Cantabrian coach covered a wide range of topics relating to the Catalan club as he spoke to beIN Sports and admitted that Luis Suarez is still not 100% fit.
FC Barcelona head coach Quique Setién covered a wide range of subject matters as he faced questions from beIN Sports in a video call with the veteran coach offering his view on: Neymar, Luis Suárez, Rakitic, Dembélé, Lautaro and Pjanic…
Neymar: "I love to be able to coach him some day as he is a top class player. To be honest, I've fulfilled a dream in coaching Messi, but I'd be absolutely delighted if Neymar joined us".
Luis Suárez: "He's still not fully recovered despite training with the first team squad. He still lacks a little bit of conditioning and needs to boost his confidence. He's been out of action for quite some time and I foresee him getting the all-clear to play from the medical team in three or four weeks".
Messi's comments: “It's certainly become a talking point (Messi claimed that playing as they were, Barcelona would struggle in the Champions League with Setién stating later that he would have to convince Messi that that was not the case with the Argentine later claiming to have been misunderstood). The truth of the matter is that we're both convinced that we could win the Champions League. It's true that there is always room for improvement but that we have enough talent to win the competition".
Pjanic: “I've always stated that I like great players and he is a fine talent. This is true of many that are linked to the club via the press".
Rakitic: “He's in my plans. I don't know how much game time he's had this season but he knows that I'll be counting on him”.
Lautaro: “We all know that there are perhaps four of five strikers capable of playing in this role and he is one of these”.
Dembélé and Umtiti: “Both are players that I hope to have back, Dembélé is still recovering and Umtiti's problems are less grave and I hope he's back with the squad as soon as possible”.
LaLiga restart: “I appreciate that we will now finish the season and anything can happen in the final rounds of games. Despite us being on top of the table currently, I would certainly prefer for the season to finish on the pitch”.
Champions League: “I'm more focused at present on the league campaign but do recognise that the Champions League is a special competition especially with the prestige value attached to it. It's a more complicated competition as one slip-up can be instrumental in sealing elimination”.