Barcelona defender Marc Bartra has pointed the finger at the team’s mental strength as the reason for their disappointments last season.
Bartra has been interviewed by Mundo Deportivo and also spoke of his excitement at the forthcoming campaign, defended former boss Tata Martino and touched on the revolving door this summer at Camp Nou.
“I approach the season with great enthusiasm and desire,” Bartra said. “It’s my third season and with Luis Enrique, who knows us all well, hopefully it’ll be much better than the last.
“I think [Enrique’s arrival] is a plus for the young players as he knows us all well, is from this house and knows how to work here. That makes everything much easier.
“The motivation is the same whoever you are but it’s true Luis Enrique is able to make the best of everyone. The main thing is to have a good attitude.
“I don’t believe Tata lost the team. The beginning was very good but we began to lose games and there were many off-field issues, although that shouldn’t be an excuse. We have to be self-critical so there isn’t a repeat.
“Tata trained as always and the team honestly didn’t look so bad physically. On the contrary, we were at our peak and we didn’t win because mentally we weren’t as we had to be.
“We weren’t consistent. We were able to do very good things, but then we weren’t decisive in matches when we needed to be.
“We have to move on knowing these things. We appreciate it isn’t easy to win titles and we have to be 100% because if we’re not, any team can move ahead.”
Bartra added that from his past experience of playing under Enrique with Barca B, he sees a better Coach today, but with many of the same traits.
“Enrique is a very demanding Coach, who likes attitude and willingness to work very hard,” he continued.
“I think he has improved on the tactical side since he trained us in the B team.
“I think he dominates all facets of the game, both with and without the ball, pressure, and besides being ambitions and demanding he knows how to win.
“Tactically he’s similar to Pep Guardiola. Each does their own thing but I think they’re both great motivators.”