While warning on the dangers ahead for FC Barcelona should the dismal away records continue to hold, Valdes is hopeful things will change.



Valdes is in top form at the moment, but the unstable nature of the rest of the team has not helped showcase the keeper’s immense talents. Barca play well at home and are the exact opposite at away games. This worries everyone in the team and Valdes is very concerned that this trend must be checked and stopped if ever FC Barcelona will hope to have any chances of winning the title this season. Barca are tied on points with fourth placed Valencia. The goalkeeper, who is overdue for a Spanish national team call-up, laments over the disappointment against Getafe in which the Blaugrana went down 2-0 amid below average performance. Valdes fumes:

We’re giving away points away from home. Obviously, you can’t drop points at home if you want to win the league, but we have to examine our game in away matches to see what we’re doing right and where we could be better. There’s still time, there’s a long way to go and we can sort it out. It’s not a case of not having the desire because we go out onto every pitch to win, but the opposition set out their stalls very well in the game. They played with great intelligence and knew how to play against us. This makes it difficult for us to get results. We didn’t play as a team. I mean within the system. Our system is based on close lines and maximum pressure. This wasn’t the case against Getafe. We left too much space and in this sense we didn’t play as a team. The problem is a tactical one, a footballing one. Yesterday we gave too much space to quick players who hit us on the counter attack. Our system didn’t work.

Valdes remains optimistic that all will be well with Barca. The in-form keeper believes that the Blaugrana will bounce back into reckoning and sail above all other teams to clinch the La Liga title. Valdes concludes this by saying:

We’ve come through worse situations.

Barca, with 24 points, have slipped to third place in the Spanish La Liga table behind Real Madrid with 28 points and Villarreal with 27 points. Valencia are also tied with barca on 24 points, but are fourth due to inferior goal difference of +1 to Barca's +13.