Vicente Moreno says his side can’t wait to face FC Barcelona after 102 days of suspended domestic football.
We host the league leaders having previously been confined to training at home and a steady progression of sessions at Ciudad Deportiva Antonio Asensio, but the manager believes his squad are in the best shape possible to face the 11 games which await us - starting with Quique Setién’s side this Saturday evening.
“There’s never a good time to face FC Barcelona,” he told journalists during a video press conference. “They will always be favourites. We’re excited to get our hands on them and we’re going to try our best, but they have the best player in the world in Leo Messi. We’re going to enjoy it but also suffer Hopefully we can play many more times against players like him, it will be synonymous that we’re among the elite.”
“We have been preparing ourselves from the first moment of confinement. Players have demonstrated how professional they are. There’s nothing like training on the pitch but there are players who returned to training better than they left.”
With fixtures expected to be played every 72 hours, Moreno has stressed the importance of rotating his squad and the adapting to the new normal of football post COVID-19.
“It's a good opportunity for all players to step forward and also for those who have had fewer minutes,” he continued. “It’s difficult to think that they will always play the same due to fatigue, cautions or injury. It's a time for players to claim a spot in the side. That’s what I want as a coach.
"A lot of things are going to change like the possibility of making five substitutions or the fact of having to start playing without an audience, but we all have to adapt. It’s clear that we’ll not have our fans at the stadium but we can’t think too much about it. This is the new reality and until now there have been more important things.”
