Luis Enrique remains unconvinced by Piqué

Gerard Piqué has work to do to get back to being irreplaceable at Barça. With a clear idea of what he wants and resolute in his decisions Luis Enrique continues to mostly ignore the defender who many supposed would be involved week in, week out for his past performances.

Piqué’s standard has fallen away over recent seasons, and he’s now fighting for a place in the plans of a coach who the player knows isn't going to make things easy for him and who is demanding a return to the level he was at when he was first brought back from Manchester United in 2008.

“I’m going to fight to get back to being one of the best centre backs in the world”, said the footballer in July in the pre-season camp at St George’s in England, where Luis Enrique got his first look at the Spanish internationals retuning from the disaster in Brazil. Of the last four Barça matches (three in the Liga and one in the Champions League) Piqué has only played in the La Rosaleda against Málaga (0-0).

When Luis Enrique is asked about the footballer the answer is always politically correct (“I’m delighted with Gerard and his attitude at training. The lad has a great, fun, character”), however when he has to show his preference for what happens on the field of play, things are radically different: Mascherano and Mathieu appear to be untouchable, despite not being out and out centre-backs, and Piqué and Bartra have had to watch most of the matches from the bench, something they haven’t enjoyed one bit.

What is clear is that Luis Enrique isn’t committed to anyone (with the exception of Leo Messi who’s played every game). In defence though it appears that his choice last summer was the signing of Mathieu who has played the most minutes of all at the back, 540 minutes in six appearances in the seven games played so far this season.

There’s a long way to go and Piqué could win his starting place back – there’s no doubt about his quality, he has it and he’s shown it, but it appears he needs to show that he really does want to “make the effort to be the best” as he said.

from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/Zw8hQy

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