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Gerard Pique offered a brutally honest assessment of Barcelona’s season so far and aims for 2020-21 after scoring in his team’s 2-1 Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday.
The center-back scored the all-important second goal at the Camp Nou and spoke afterward about how his team does not deserve to be considered favorites for this season’s Champions League, as reported by Sport.
It’s normal that we are not viewed as a candidate to win the Champions League with what’s happened in recent seasons. All we can do is keep working hard, win games and gain confidence. There’s a good group here, on a human level as well, and experience says the results will come — I don’t know when … This year won’t be easy but we’re confident we can turn things around. We’re in November, there’s a long way to go.
Barcelona’s win over Dynamo Kiev was not at all convincing but does take Ronald Koeman’s side top of Group G after three games played and on the brink of qualification for the knockout stages.
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Pique Says Barca Needed Changes
Pique also spoke about the changes happening around the club. Koeman has arrived as manager, while a new president will be elected after Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned in October.
The Catalan giants have been also been trusting in youth this season, handing plenty of game time to youngsters Pedri, Ansu Fati, and Sergino Dest, and Pique explained change was needed to arrest the club’s decline.
The club right now is how it is. It’s in a process of many changes, change I think were necessary. We needed to turn things around. It was obvious that we were in decline and every year we were a little worse. We don’t have much time but we need it to improve. There’s never a transition year at Barcelona, you’re always obliged to win. Now we have elections and a new board will come in and we will see changes in the coming months little by little.
In the meantime, we have to keep on repeating but it’s not easy because of many circumstances. Not just relating to what’s going on at the club, but because we’re here with no fans. Things have gone well in the Champions League but in La Liga we have to change and we’re going to change. We have young players coming through, they have added dynamism to the group and to the way we play. We don’t have much time but we need it to gain confidence and keep on growing.
The changes have come after humiliating exits from the Champions League in the last three seasons. Barca also relinquished their La Liga title last season to rivals Real Madrid after a poor end to the campaign under previous manager Quique Setien.
Can Barca Turn Around La Liga Form?
Barca’s win should provide the players with momentum to take into Saturday’s La Liga clash against Real Betis. The Catalan giants host Manuel Pellegrini’s men at the Camp Nou and are in need of three points to boost their flagging campaign.
Koeman’s men have not won in their last four games, a run of form that means they head into the weekend down in 12th place in the table and closer on points to the bottom than the top.
Barca have also suffered at the hands of Real Betis before. They will need no reminding they were beaten 4-3 by Los Verdiblancos in a seven-goal thriller back in November 2018.
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