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Guardiola, Puyol at odds over Barca draw

Comment: 0 January 30th, 2012 by: admin

While Pep Guardiola praises his Barcelona squad for their performance Saturday despite a draw at Villarreal, captain Carles Puyol insists that no excuses are acceptable for the lack of a win.

Guardiola, who has held the Barca reins since 2008, described the outcome as merely an unfortunate but survivable result, and that the players displayed “excellent” performance nonetheless.

“We played very well and ran a lot,” said the 41-year old, whose side recently booted out rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey competition.  “I want to fight for every point like we fought tonight.  Playing like we have a good season, there is no blame.”

The situation was of a less-acceptable nature to Puyol, who insisted that there was no reason for the squad to have displayed a performance that ended with a draw at El Madrigal.

“There are absolutely no excuses,” said Puyol, whose words ran opposite to Guardiola’s more optimistic statements.

Addressing speculations that the draw was the result of the intense Copa del Rey match with Real Madrid hardly three days prior to Villarreal.

“The players are used to playing every three games,” said Puyol.

Guardiola and Puyol were on the same page, however, in insisting that winning all the other games set in the near future is crucial for them to remain in contention for the La Liga title.

“I want to convey to my players that we will fight to the end,” Guardiola declared.  “Now we have to win everything at our disposal.”

Puyol was also encouraging, insisting that there is more to come from Barcelona.

“The team will react; we’ll do more, whatever we must to win,” he said.  “La Liga is not lost.  We will not give up.”

A win at Villarreal would have allowed Barca, currently at second place, to keep in their sights first-placers Real Madrid who had been leading by five points.  Barca’s failure to secure a win, however, adds another two points to Real’s lead.

“Being five [points behind] is better than seven,” Guardiola admitted.  “We have been too attentive to the things they do well, we have lacked luck when putting the ball in the net but my assessment is that I am satisfied, especially after last week’s work.”

The manager was also quick to give accolades to Villarreal, who climb up one spot to 18^th after the draw.

“We have played an excellent game, but Villarreal are a team that have a lot of shots on goal and play very well if given space,” he said.  “Marco Ruben was fantastic and won all the second balls, while Joselu and Camunas found lots of space.”

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