Luís Enrique: 'I like my players to take risks'

Luís Enrique: 'I like my players to take risks'

The FC Barcelona manager talks frankly to the media about his tactics after his ideas worked to such great effect against Leganés on Saturday

Following his first ever visit to Butarque, Luis Enrique was delighted with the way his side played, telling his post-match press conference that “we were pretty inspired and very active from the start. We would have suffered much more if we’d been caught napping.”

The three-man defence, he admitted “did have its risks, but I like risks and I like my players to take them too.”

Here is a selection of other quotes from the Barça manager after the 5-1 defeat of Leganés:

"Leganés were valiant and daring. They put pressure on us man to man and that make it harder for us to get the ball moving.”

“Their pressure made us uneasy, but it meant we could create space. We were confident about the way the game was going and all that space meant we could create goalscoring chances. We’ll face all kinds of situations over the season and we have to learn to master them all.”

“We dealt with three-on-three situations really well in defence. The same goes for the attack, and with the players we have up front, we had to take our chances. We still have to improve, but I liked today’s approach.”

“When we have the ball, we work around the pivot. But with three centre backs, there’s no pivot. And instead the two central midfielders (Rakitic and Iniesta) drop back a bit – although there is a certain risk involved in doing that”

“That’s three of the seven games in 23 days out of the way. We have to make sure we manage the playing time right because the most important thing is to make sure we win games.”

“We know we have a long season ahead of us and that’s why we’ll need all the players, both as individuals and as a unit. We have made changes – we have another game in four days' time and we have to share the workload. You can’t get through a season with just eleven players.”

Força Barça
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