While, Luis Enrique has no qualms in accepting that a big percentage of the responsibility, for Atletico Madrid smashing Barcelona out of continental Football, comes down to him, he believes getting nervous and panicky at this moment in time will not solve the problem.
Enrique was outsmarted by Atletico boss Vicente Calderon, who in spite of being behind by a goal at the start of return leg, was more circumspect in his formation and played the waiting game which, Enrique admitted later on, was a surprise to him and his players.
As per Enrique, people will have their own explanations of what has been the problem with Barcelona. There will be loads and loads of opinions coming from everywhere, but, a manager has to address the root of the problem and work on that and he can’t do that without analyzing everything. So, for him to pass a comment immediately, that a particular aspect is responsible for the setback and we could have won if we had not done this and that, is hard, but, what is sure is that there is simply not enough no. of balls put into the net by the team, for whatever reason and that’s something which stops you from winning games.
Also, Enrique stressed repeatedly that there is no point losing the head either from the perspective of the players or the coaching staff because Champions League was not the only tournament Barcelona was contending for. It might have been the most important one yes, but, not the only one. A couple of other tournaments are also there to be won. So, calmness is vital.
Barcelona had actually almost closed the Liga race some time back. They were miles ahead and looked uncatchable. But, two loses successively of late has now opened that tournament as well, bringing Atletico into play.
