Enrique: Don’t care about possession

Luis Enrique insists Barcelona’s 3-4-3 formation against Leganes “wasn’t anything strange” as he “doesn’t care about possession in these games”.

Barca eased to a 5-1 victory over Leganes in Saturday’s early La Liga kick-off, but more was made of their three-man defence and lack of defensive midfielder, which resulted in the Catalans enjoying less possession and making less passes than they were usually accustomed to.

“When we have the ball, we’ve often use a line of the three,” the Coach said after the game.

“What happened today was that we played with three centre-backs. Depending on where the pressure is, we move.

“It wasn’t anything strange, the difference is that today the pivot was further forward and not embedded between the centre-backs.

“We intended to have more of the ball than our opponents and exploit the spaces. There are things to improve on, but I’m staying calm.

“Depending on the opponents, there will be complications and we must find these spaces. Possession interests me very little in these games, I don’t care about it.

“We try to create situations that give our forwards one-on-ones, and we solved them well.

“If you’re not sharp, you can suffer at the back, but we created spaces in attack that we took advantage of.

“Generally, it went well for us. This strategy has its risks, but I liked that the players were able to execute it.

“We faced opponents who pressed high, the pressure made things uncomfortable for us at first, but it also gave us space.

“If the team fell asleep, it would’ve cost much more [to win]. I liked our attitude, the idea and we approached the match with guarantees to take it forward.

“We’re all aware that to tackle the season, we need everyone and expect them to be at a good level.”

Enrique was finally asked about his decision to rest Sergio Busquets and whether he would extend his contract in the near future.

“He’s a vital player, but he can’t rest in the squad and we want him to be in peak condition at the end of the season, although I prefer him to be on the pitch,” he added.

“[My contract?] We’ll see.”

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