"Messi needs rest" says FC Barcelona manager Quique Setien

Barcelona star Lionel Messi needs a rest as per coach Quique Setien. 

Barcelona were successful in forcing Madrid with some pressure as they beat Real Valladolid by a goal’s margin. Messi was again involved deeply in the game and he set up Arturo Vidal for the only goal in the game in the 15th-minute.

Barca are now within a point of Los Blancos but the leaders have a game in hand. Messi played for the entire 90 minutes in the game as Barca’s busy schedule continues but now, Setien feels the Argentine needs some rest.

In a news conference, the Barcelona boss said, “He probably will get a rest, yes. I’ve mentioned it to him previously and perhaps today if we’d got a couple more goals, as I think we deserved, he probably would have come off to get a little bit of a rest.”

However, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez both played for 45 minutes as the latter replaced the former at half-time. According to Setien, Griezmann had taken a knock and went on to say that the entire team seemed tired after a third game in the space of a week. Setien openly spoke about the tight schedule at the moment and consequently, the tiring performances of the players on the pitch.

“It’s less than 72 hours since we played our last game. It was very hot today and the pitch felt a lot bigger towards the end of the match. You could see that a lot of players were not looking fresh on late in the game and they probably lacked that touch of intensity. We’ve played many games and it’s very draining and we have quite a few players who’ve played a lot of minutes so we can’t blame our football, I blame mostly our tired legs for today’s game.”

Setien concluded by saying that a tired mind also leads and affects your decision-making.

featured image credits- Evening Standard