Pre-Season To Blame For Barca’s Poor La Liga Start Says Pique

Gerard Pique blamed Barcelona’s pre-season fixtures for their slow start to the campaign after a 2-1 win over Villarreal on Tuesday.

Barca eased the pressure on head coach Ernesto Valverde with their victory at Camp Nou, moving onto 10 points from six La Liga games.

While not wanting to make excuses, Pique felt Barcelona’s pre-season, which saw them travel to Japan and the United States, has impacted their start to the campaign.

Lionel Messi made just his first start of the season after recovering from a calf injury, only to come off at half-time due to an adductor problem.

“The pre-season did not help at all to start well in the competition, a lot of travel and little training,” Pique said post-match.

“Many of us notice it and we don’t have the tone yet, not only Messi, but we must continue because we are forced to win, it is a setback.

“Look now what has happened to Messi, but there are no excuses, in the team there are qualified people to replace him and move on, although we hope he will be out as short as possible.”