📣 Koeman on injuries, fatigue, future and title race | OneFootball

Ronald Koeman has addressed the media ahead of Barcelona’s must-win clash with Levante on Tuesday night.

Here’s what he had to say …

On injuries and rotation

“Ronald Araújo was injured for a while but he’s fine again and played very well against Atlético. The problem is that his injury lasted a little longer than expected.

“On [Miralem Pjanić and Riqui Puig], if the team is feeling good and playing well, I don’t make many changes.

“That also goes for training sessions and the match system, all of that is important. They are waiting and preparing for their turn to get a chance to play.”

On title race

“We’re in the same situation. The league isn’t yet over. Atlético are ahead but we don’t have to think about the others.

“The first and only thing we can do is to win our own games but it’s important to remember where we’ve come from and the changes we’ve made. We won a trophy and now there are three games to go for another.

“I’m the first person to say though that in the first half of the season we weren’t at our level but we’ve improved.

“I only watched the first 20 minutes of Madrid-Sevilla yesterday and then changed to Juventus-Milan because it makes me nervous to watch other teams and I like to be calmer!”

On fatigue

“We’ve played many games and that takes a toll. Playing at home without your fans also complicates things even more.

“That’s why we’ve dropped points at Camp Nou. The number of games we’re playing isn’t normal either.

“The team that gets to the end, mentally and physically stronger is the one who will win but all teams arrive fairly and in similar shape.”

On his future

“I’ll answer after the last game but you don’t need to look for things that aren’t there.

“The president has shown confidence in me from day one and after the season, we’ll talk about the future.

“I’ve signed for two years as coach and I see myself here next year. If not, we’ll speak about it as arranged at the end of the season.

“There are two weeks and three games to go. Today isn’t the time to talk about my future.”