Ernesto Valverde reflects on early results of his Barcelona tenure

On Tuesday (24 December), FC Barcelona manr Ernesto Valverde took time out of his holiday to discuss Barca's recent results, how tight La Liga is this season and impact of injuries to Lionel Messi and Ousmane Dembele.

"I think re has been good moments throughout year. I think we will always choose those moments of victory. Also those moments during which we were doing well. As team consolidated and things started to work better. n you have things where re is room for improvement. We've also had important snags. And looking in perspective we want things to improve in new year."

"We've been improving along way. Because we didn't have a good start of league. In fact we started losing our first game. Right w we are up re at top of chart. Obviously we still have a lot ahead in la Liga. Also, in Champions League we are doing good with those goals we set ourselves every season. And because you keep achieving m it may seem an easy thing to do. But it isn't. Like assuring passing to next st one match day before end of group st."

"It was a typical low-scoring game. With difficulties to pass ball. Except for last year's exception when we were clearly superior and won 5-1, Real Madrid always plays well at our stadium. It's always a very tough match. It was complicated for us to avoid ir pressure. Hence 0-0 result. We had more clear scoring occasions. But at times y really dominated game."

"We have won two La Liga titles with a big gap in points with our immediate rivals. I think it was a great success. And we enjoyed that during season. We won both during month of April. We could have won more titles for club. But we must enjoy what we've got."

"I see him getting more and more integrated with team. It isn't easy for a player coming from a team with such big difference in style to get used to dynamics of our team. Both in way we train and also with our level of competitiveness. But he adds up many things to our team."

"He is displaying great level. I think same level he had before his arrival. I think he can still get better. Like playing faster and having more participation in those decisive last yards. Because he has capacity to do that. Both scoring goals and also assisting ors to score. I think he can improve. And we must insist on that."

"We must think of difficulties we've had this year. It is true we've lost three games. We've lost a game against Athletic (Bilbao) during last minute. We've also lost two games we didn't expect to lose. We've lost against Levante and Granada. But if we look a bit back to previous season, I think during first half of 2019 we've only lost a single league game. Against Celta. And we were already champions. It isn't rmal losing against Granada or Levante. Specially during a match like one against Levante when things looked well. It's true we failed re. But also, it isn't rmal to never lose. "

"Taking into account relevance of Champions League and what it means to all of us, it was very important for us to have things already sorted before arriving at that last match day at Inter's stadium. We didn't want to arrive re with classification still in doubt. It was a very tough Champions League group st. "

"In any case we are already at a st in which thing is easy. You can't falter. It's an all or thing situation. In this case we have advant of playing second leg at home. But Champions League isn't same as La Liga. You have ten or five bad minutes, a couple of mistakes, and you're out. We must learn from what happened to us and try to improve it."

"Evidently having such significance absence clearly affected us. I think that, especially at home, we played very good games without him. We played very well against Valencia and Betis. But we were having difficulties playing away from home. And that spark and magic Leo has when he plays was missing. And, of course, is impossible t to miss his absence. And n he was back in competition. But added to his time out of pitch re it was fact that he hadn't done a pre-season. And that always makes things more difficult to a player. Especially from a physical shape standpoint. But he rapidly reconnected. He's already scoring lots of goals. And I think he's already in full shape."

"I think this last one has been especially cruel to him. He was very focused, compromised and working well. Dembele is a player with so many qualities, and we are always expecting to see full of m being displayed on pitch. We want to see him happy and doing things for us. And it seemed we were finally getting re. He was getting re from all points of view. And this has been a significant blow. Also for his mood."

"This isn't about just this season. It has been case since a while ago. It's been a constant growth. I think this year y will conquer league title, without a doubt. As for Champions League, last season y conquered milestone of reaching final. But in this competition you still have countries with such high level and it will be complicated."