Valverde: Barça needed someone who could break through the lines
The Barcelona coach's changes helped turn things around at Getafe
Denis and Paulinho scored in the second half to seal the three points
Ernesto Valverde only knows how to win in La Liga. The win against Getafe, though, was, without doubt, the most complicated of the four games his Barcelona side have won this season. However, the way in which the three points came about also leaves a good taste.
The coach feels that the triumph "strengthens us because it was tough going forward, they pressed us well and it was hard to create danger. They closed us down well and we weren't able to overcome that."
In that sense, Valverde credits "the perseverance to keep pushing forward and to turn the game around." But he doesn't feel it's that important that the goals came from two substitutes (Denis Suarez and Paulinho): "Whether it's one player or another... look, what serves us well is to know that we're capable of reacting."
Valverded continue: "We struggled because to be honest we weren't playing that quickly, although the pitch didn't help either. It was dry, the ball didn't run too much, but regardless of that, we tried to turn things around. We wanted to break through the lines, to go deeper. If not, we would have kepy crashing into a well."
But that doesn't take credit away from substitutes Deulofeu, Denis and Paulinho: "It's important for them from a personal point of view [that they contributed]. It gives them confidence. Also, them scoring shows that the squad has depth and that we have a lot of players who can contribute -- and that includes players that aren't here. [All three] of them get forward and they have goals in them."
However, he wasn't giving himself too much credit for the changes: "There will be many times when you make a change and nothing happens or what you were thinking doesn't happen."
On Ousmane Dembele's injury, he added: "He's going to have to spend some time on the sidelines. It's a muscle problem. We think it's a tear, but we will do more tests tomorrow. It's a shame because he was just getting up to scratch with the team's dynamic. We hope he won't be out for a long time."
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