Whatever Guardiola says, Barça has a chance of La Liga glory >> Culé Talk

Guardiola: “Fighting back from four points down is tremendously difficult”

Guardiola: ‘It seems as though we already have the La Liga title, but the reality is that four points are a lot of points. There’s a lot of work to do. People need to start doing the math. We do our own calculations. I’m not interested in the calculations done 600 km away. This league title is practically impossible’

Guardiola: ‘I still believe that winning La Liga is a practically impossible task. If we want to have the slightest chance at the title, we have to win the seven remaining games left on the schedule. You never know, but it’s evident that we cannot lose points Our job is to think that Luis García’s Getafe are coming tomorrow, they have always made it difficult for us to overcome their fantastic defence; they beat us the first time around’

Guardiola: ‘The players know what I’ve told you and what we must do for the rest of the season, and that’s smiling a little less and running a little more. There has been very little relaxation in these players. In order to win we have to run more and when the good times come, smile. What I don’t want is for my players to focus on things they shouldn’t. I want these players to have a good time, smile – but in order to win we have to run’

Guardiola: ‘My players say that Barca won’t lose anymore matches for the rest of the year, I don’t know which self-help book they’re getting that from, because we have tough matches coming up. We need to be fresh and very brilliant on defence, where we’re stretched so thin’

– The manager reminded the packed press room that no team in the history of La Liga have ever fought back to overturn a 10-point lead held by Real Madrid and that Barça still have a lot of work to do, starting with the match against Getafe.

Until fairly recently, I think we had all resigned ourselves to the likelihood of Madrid winning this season’s La Liga title. All we could do was win our games but it was unlikely that we could make up a ten point defecit. Fortunately, things have changed in the last month. Three draws by our fierce rival have enabled us to close the gap to four points. However, the title is still Madrid’s to lose. A four point lead with seven games to play is still a huge advantage.

To add to our optimism, Madrid are showing signs of imploding, They have reacted very badly to their recent setbacks blaming everyone except themselves. There are plenty of rumours of disharmony between the various factions in the Madrid camp. Mourinho seems reluctant to give press conferences these days often leaving that task to Karanka, his faithful assistant. In their most setback, things became so bad that Pepe did not even know at which team’s players he should aim his “patadas” (kicks).

However, Real Madrid are still a dangerous opponent. Whilst they may lack the unity of purpose of our Barcelona, the individual talent in their team is still very capable of winning games for them. This includes the upcoming Clasico at Camp Nou. We cannot take it for granted that we will win that, or any other, game.

From our point of view, all we can do is to continue to win our games, one at a time. We cannot afford any mistakes starting with tonight’s clash against Getafe. Playing a must win game every three or four days is extremely difficult. We certainly cannot afford any more injuries especially in defence. Hopefully Alves and Pique will recover quickly. We also need every member of the squad to contribute as  rotation will be essential with so many games. The chance for glory is certainly there. We could end the season with SIX trophies. That would be absolutely fantastic. I am cautiously optimistic.

REAL MADRID: FC BARCELONA ARE COMING TO GET YOU!!!!!

Guest Post by: Drago at ‘Culé Talk’