Some of Ernesto Valverde things ... nice to read !

Valverde: "The Clásico? It was a great game for us, both the final score and how it fell, I think it made Christmas even happier. Now I have to prepare for the year to come."

Valverde: "The month of January is going to be intense, we need to prepare."

Valverde: "This is a team that's very competitive, the players are fully committed to competing, they're winners. You can see that, you can see it when they train and play games."

Valverde: "FC Barcelona players are different; with different characteristics and we all have to adapt. Me as a coach have to adapt to them. Dembélé was a player with specific characteristics that at the time we lacked."

Valverde: "We have a deep team, and luckily we had the players to step in for Dembélé and in fact they've done pretty well."

Valverde: "It's true that in that moment [moment when Dembélé got injured] it was tough to take, above all for him because he's a young player and with all the attentions surrounding his signing, who knows whether that played a role in his injury."

Valverde: "We have to have the ball and we have to generate scoring chances through that possession."

Valverde: "It's true that when we don't have the ball we organize us in a certain way, but it's also true that when we do have the ball we organize ourselves in another way. It's clear that what we try to do is have balance."

Valverde: "When we have the ball everybody becomes an attacker and when we don't have the ball everyone becomes a defender. It's kind of like what happens in basketball."

Valverde: "Our intentions are always to try to win the game from the very first minute, I don't have any doubt about that. I don't believe in waiting to see how the game goes."

Valverde: "Messi is the best player you can possibly find in the world. He's a player who can take anything and make it extraordinary. Whatever ball he touches, he's just an absolutely incredible teammate and we're incredibly lucky to have him."

Valverde: "We see how Messi approaches competing, his level of competitiveness, his commitment to the team and the club, he motivates all of us."

Valverde: "I place a lot of importance on the players and especially the forwards having a lot of contact with the ball. So what if they miss chances? I want them to have those chances, goals will be scored."

Valverde: "Suárez? Get him the ball as much as you can because he's going to put them in the net."

Valverde: "I haven't worried about Suárez because I saw him getting chances, he may or may not have been on target, but it was just a question of time and in the end it's exactly what happened."

Valverde: "Paulinho is a player with a different style from what we had in the team. He's something else, he's a player who perhaps moves around a little bit more. He surprises teams by getting into their penalty area."

Valverde: "Of course he [Paulinho] is incredibly effective, but above all because he has a lot of faith. He follows the play a lot, both on attack and defense. He really helps out at the defensive end and he seems to really understand Messi in the final third."

Valverde: "Gap with Real Madrid? We are not thinking about it, we have to move forward, we don't have to look at anything else."

Valverde: "We'd like to win it all wouldn't we? That's what we'd love to do, but we haven't won anything yet. What I want, is for the team to keep the faith."

Valverde: "I am delighted with the players we have, but we are always open to improvement."

Valverde: "Neymar's departure was a difficult moment for the team, it greatly affected the environment."

Valverde: "Playing behind closed doors on October 1st? It was a very strange situation."