Valverde talks Pedro, Rakitic and Real Sociedad

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The latest from the Barcelona boss

Ernesto Valverde has been talking ahead of Saturday’s La Liga clash against Real Sociedad at Anoeta.

The Barcelona boss talked about the fitness of his full-backs, Pedro’s comments that he’d love to return and of course Saturday’s opponents.

Here are the best bits:

Valverde on Jordi Alba and Nelson Semedo

They have been training since just after the last league game. They didn’t have the medical all-clear for inter but hopefully today they can. They are both training well.

Valverde on Real Sociedad

Anoeta is always one of the toughest places to play. Real Sociedad are having a great season and it will be a challenging match. They are having a great season, are fourth, playing very good football with very strong forwards.

Valverde on Ivan Rakitic

I see him in the same way as I see the others. We are at a time where we play a lot of competitions and I know that during the summer or winter transfer window there are questions.

We have to face the challenges that we have with the players that we have. If he plays more often, it is because he is playing well.

Valverde on Pedro

He’s an historic Barca player. He’s one of the players to win the most titles with this club, but he plays for another club now. We have to respect players at other clubs. We’ll see what might happen in the future.

Valverde on Arturo Vidal’s future

How can I respond to information that comes or doesn’t come from us? This information came from Inter. They will know. In our case, the market has not yet opened. Arturo is our player and we’ll need him if we think it convenient.

Source: barcablaugranes.com