Lucho: Gomes important to Barca

Luis Enrique believes Andre Gomes “will be very valuable to Barcelona in the coming years” after the midfielder’s goal against Valencia.

Gomes came off the bench to round off Barca’s 4-2 victory over his former club on Sunday, prompting Enrique to declare that the Portuguese’s contribution was his “highlight” of the evening.

“It was a very complete match, it had everything, we fought very well against a team that sat back and we had many chances,” the Coach said after the game.

“They took an unfair lead on the scoreboard, and we’ve always found it difficult against them.

“We needed patience to bounce back and find our feet. We weren’t able to confirm the win until the last minute, but it’s still a great reinforcement for us.

“There were some imbalances, but it’s something logical and normal. We tried to reduce them with better positioning, a better structure and, above all, better pressure.

“Gomes? His goal was my highlight of the night, I congratulate the fans who applauded him when there were whistles. Andre will be very valuable to Barca in the coming years, you’ll see.

“He has personality, physicality and unique quality for a player with his characteristics.

“Decisive Clasico at the Bernabeu? No. There’s a lot of tightness, teams are playing a lot of games. It’s difficult for anyone to win everything, it’s practically impossible, in fact.

“Set-pieces? That’s football. It’s a negative run, which will pass.

“Protecting our lead at 3-2? It doesn’t go with our idea of football. Our objective is to always kill the game off.

“Formation? We’ll go back to 4-3-3 before the end of the season. At times, we create more chances with the 4-3-3 than the 3-4-3.

“Messi? He’s broken all the records, how wonderful is it to be able to enjoy Messi… Not only for Barca fans but all fans.

“Leo’s numbers are only within his reach. They’ll be sorely missed in the future.

“Rotations? Surely there will be more rotations. April will be an atrocious month.”

Tags Andre Gomes Luis Enrique
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