Luis Enrique insists Lionel Messi’s injury will not affect Barcelona’s style of play in wake of the No 10 being ruled out for up to two months.
Messi was forced off after just 10 minutes of La Blaugrana’s 2-0 victory over Las Palmas in La Liga on Saturday, but the Coach – while acknowledging the difficulty of the task at hand – believes his side have enough in their locker to compensate for the Argentine’s absence.
“We’ll play no differently than we do with Messi,” he said after the game.
“Messi liberates us and gives us solutions, but we have to make do with what we have. We have many quality players [barring Messi].
“Whenever there’s an injury, it’s the team who have to react. I don’t like to have a single player carrying the team.
“This is a test and obstacle that we have to overcome. We accept the challenge [of playing without Messi] and what we have to do is improve our performance. It’s in our hands.
“You gain experience from situations like this, not when everything goes smoothly. Injuries are the worst thing in football, and we know how important Messi is.
“We should have spent the final five minutes moving the ball and looking for action [instead of inviting pressure].
“We had a fairly complete game, with plenty of chances to see out [the result], but it became complicated [towards the end] and it was the same old story.
“In the final four or five minutes, we suffered when there was no need.”
