Messi to remain Barca captain
BARCELONA beat Nastic Tarragona in their first friendly of the pre-season on Saturday, with Lionel Messi again wearing the captain’s armband.
Barcelona beat the third-tier side 3-1 with goals from Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho.
Messi made his first appearance of the season after being confirmed as Barcelona captain for the campaign.
Teammates voted the Argentinian as the dressing-room leader despite his attempts to move away in recent weeks. He opted to stay in the end.
“Messi’s quality speaks for itself,” said coach Ronald Koeman. “He knows he has to get fitter before the start of the season.”
Koeman said his side could play a different style of football to which the club’s fans are used to this season.
The Dutchman lined up with a 4-2-3-1 system with two holding midfielders, a shape rarely used by Barca coaches in the past. He started Sergio Busquets and Carles Alena in the middle in the first half and then Frenkie de Jong and Riqui Puig, as he changed his entire team after halftime.
“It’s perhaps a little different and more defensive to what we have seen in the last few years,” Koeman told the club’s official television channel.
“But the aim is to move the ball, hold on to it and create space to play between the lines, behind the opponents’ midfielders. I think this team is capable of doing this because we have midfielders who are able to play in that way.”
Barca play Girona on Wednesday in another friendly and are in talks to face Elche in a final pre-season match before beginning their campaign at home to Villarreal on September 27, two weeks after the official start of La Liga. “It was important for those players to play now because this is not a normal pre-season, we only have four weeks together, not six and it’s very difficult,” Koeman added.
“What we want to do right now is focus on our fitness and then over the next two weeks, focus on more tactical questions.
“The most important thing today is that fortunately there were no injuries and everyone was able to play 45 minutes. We showed good levels of intensity in spells, and although there are things we can improve in, we are happy. We’ve only been working together for two weeks, and now we have two more.”