Guardiola: “We must focus on ourselves”

Marc Guillén

Pep Guardiola believes that things that happen within the FC Barcelona squad should remain private and made it clear that his main aim this season is for his team to make a concerted effort to win the league title.

The Blaugrana coach was reflecting on reports that he had fined his players for arriving a couple of minutes after the 11:00 start time for training and was not prepared to go into the matter. "That is something for us to think about," he told the media. "It was an internal matter and we do not need to make it public."

Focussing on Sunday's game against Recreativo is not the trainer's priority and he believes that Barça need not worry about what other teams' have been doing. "There are a lot of candidates for the title and we will not be distracted by that," he continued. "I will continue to try and convince the players that we should only concentrate on our own team."

"We have to attack better"

Barcelona's next opponents, Recreativo, are a "very organised team" accordnig to Guardiola and he believe that they will defend well and be well marshalled by coach Lucas Álcaraz. "They are a team that concede very few goals and they organise themselves very well with two lines of four," Guardiola explained.

Teams that sit back can cause Barça problems and for that reason the coach expects the Blaurgana to improve going forward. "We have to look for a way to overcome that defensive line," he said. "We have to attack better, but in a basic way in order to win again, like we did in our last two matches."