08.09.2010 19:31

“We have yet to see the best of Valdés”

Vanessa Forns

José Manuel Pinto says although Valdés is playing well, he is getting better day by day, and that we have yet to see everything that this man is capable of doing.

The squad are now preparing for the visit to the Camp Nou of Hercules, and the Barça keeper knows their guests “will be motivated and highly looking forward to it … They have signed a lot of players and I have no doubt that it’ll be a difficult game” he said.

Enough time

Pinto is not too worried about there only being three days between the internationals on Tuesday and the Liga fixture on Saturday. “The players have been working with their national teams. We will be fine” he commented.

Same risk

Neither does the reserve keeper think the situation calls for concern regarding injuries. “The risk is the same as having training. Both at Barça and with national teams, the physical programmes are designed to care for players as well as possible”.

Reserves at hand

Questions have been asked about the seemingly small squad of just 19 players in the Barça first team this year. But the stopper is sure that “if the boss thinks that’s the way it should be, he’ll have his reasons … and all that about 19 players isn’t really true because we can use reserve team players, who are top quality and who use the same playing style as the first team does”.

New goalkeeper coach

For the 2010/2011 season, and after Juan Carlos Unzué went to manage Numància, Carles Busquets is now in charge of the keepers at the club. “We have adapted well and quickly. We have worked with him before. When you have such a resourceful coach as him, things are so much easier. Relations have been good right from the very first moment”.

Focused on themselves

Pinto had no desire to discuss affairs at Real Madrid because “we have to focus on outselves. We shouldn’t waste energy thinking about Madrid, we’re simply not bothered”.

Happy for Messi

Argentina beat Spain 4-1 on Tuesday, with Lionel Messi playing brilliantly and scoring his team’s opener. Pinto said “I watched a great game, and I’m happy he could do that at home. It is important to be given an ovation at the end and for the fans to appreciate that they were seeing the best player in the world”.