FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.02.2007 18:23

Márquez: “We need to improve mentally”

Frank as ever, the Barça centre back has said that Barça need to improve their mental attitude, and also accepted the blame for the second goal against Liverpool.

Rafa Márquez was self-critical of his own performance in the Champions League second round first leg match, but feels that despite the criticism “the team has improved a lot in defence in recent games. We made isolated errors which led to the two goals and then we lacked in clarity up front. These are not many things, but they need to be improved. The team is still showing at times the kind of football it displayed last season. I think that is the way forward.”

Small details

“The team plays good football at times”, says Márquez, despite admitting that they are failing to produce the kind of continuity they managed last season. “It is the little things that are causing the defeats. We knew that 1-0 was a good score and as they didn’t seem to be putting much pressure on us, perhaps we slowed things down a bit too much. I don’t think it was a fitness thing”.

Márquez admits that the team “is not going through the best of moments, but the enthusiasm and effort required to overcome these things are always present in this team. It is not a matter of luck, because sometimes you have to make your own luck. Yesterday we had two or three dangerous situations and we let in two goals due to two unforced errors.”

More decisiveness and depth

The Mexican feels that the “team is missing a bit of depth” and explained that against the Premiership side, Rijkaard tried different attacking options in order to try to give Ronaldinho a freer reign. “Perhaps we are missing the depth and clarity we had before. Teams know us better and put more pressure on us.”

The defender cited Chelsea as an example that gives hope. “Barça has never been a team to play it defensively” he said. “We have always gone out to win games, not hang on and wait. To explain this to somebody you just have to remind them about last season when we drew Chelsea and knocked them out.”