Luis Enrique: “The team must be based on fierce competition”

Barça were in fine form on Saturday afternoon in Finland, sweeping HJK aside to the tune of a 6-0 win. Luis Enrique could be nothing but happy. “I liked the way we applied pressure as soon as we lost the ball, I liked everything”, he said. “The things we’ve been working on were showing through but there are still a lot of things we can improve”.

He refused to accept that it had been an easy game. “I we had played on half gas, they’d have made things very complicated for us” he insisted. And when asked why he hadn’t brought the big name stars that played in the World Cup semi-finals, he replied that “they’ve only been back for four days and aren’t ready yet. I’d rather they trained twice a day in Barcelona. They’ll be playing plenty of games because there’s a long season ahead”.

He was also asked why he is giving so much time to the younger players, a decision he explained by saying that “they have won their chances in training. What they have given to me I give back to them in the form of playing time. I want them all to do all they can to win a place at Barça … The basis of our team should always be fierce competition for places”.

Luis Enrique also refused to comment on the identity of the future first choice goalkeeper. “Bravo has a 33% chance, there’s another 33 for Jordi and another 33 for Ter Stegen” he said. “They’re all the same and playing well. I have three very good goalies.”