Valverde talks Vidal and Messi ahead of Atletico

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The latest from the Barcelona boss

Ernesto Valverde faced the press on Thursday ahead of tomorrow’s Spanish Super Cup clash against Atletico Madrid in Jeddah.

The Barcelona boss faced questions on Lionel Messi, Arturo Vidal and Diego Simeone’s side ahead of the start of the revamped tournament.

Valverde on Super Cup being in Saudi Arabia

We have to bear in mind football is an industry now. You’re always looking for source of income and that’s why we’re here. There are different conditions here, there were different conditions in Morocco last year, obviously we’d prefer to be playing at home but here we are.

Valverde on Messi

Obviously Messi is a very important player for us and when he’s not playing we miss him. He’s the kind of player that when he’s not on the pitch the opponents know and it’s difficult for us. But we’ve obviously played good games without him. He’s obviously the best player in the world and you notice when he’s not playing.

Valverde on Vidal

I speak to him like I speak to every other player. He’s a player who’s with us and he is doing a good job with our team. We’ll see what happens but he’s part of my plans definitely.

Valverde on Super Cup Squad

We bought a lot of players because we may need them. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. We have to train in any case. Obviously we are playing against Atletico and there’s no easy games against them and teams of their quality. We need to be alert, because anything could happen in the game.

Valverde on New Super Cup Format

It’s a completely different format to we are used to. It’s a definitive game. The team that wins will go through to the final. So we are treating it like a league game. Obviously we will be looking to win and we know how Atletico play. We saw in the last league game it was really tight but we were able to win.

Source: barcablaugranes.com