Éric Abidal: “Tiredness is no excuse”

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“We are football players and we enjoy competition, so the general state of fatigue is no excuse”, said the French defender in a press conference in which the game in Glasgow was the hot topic. “Barça have to play their own game” he said.

After the last training session before flying up to Scotland, Éric Abidal told the media why he felt Barça had slipped up against Villarreal and made it clear that “general tiredness is no excuse, we should have approached the game differently but we played our usual game despite missing several players. Perhaps we should have done what Villarreal did and stay in our own half and play on the counter attack. Abidal also said that more than fatigue it is was the psychological factor of having to come back from two goals down that affected the team.

The Scottish play

Abidal went on to speak of the game with Glasgow Rangers, and observed that “I have played against Scotland for France and we have lost twice. They play very aggressive football, it is much more physical.” His method for beating Rangers involves “Barça playing their own game and not falling into the trap of playing like the opposition in one on one situations and physical duels.”

Injuries to overcome

With Deco the latest player to go out through injury, Abidal considers some players are overdoing things. “I am no doctor” he rightly said, “but when we put in a lot of effort and play lots of games you reach the point where your body has hit its limit and that’s when injuries occur…from the very start we are all giving all we have got for the team.”

Mentality is the key for Abidal. “It would be fantastic if there weren’t so many injuries, but not all seasons are like this, the other players just have to compensate for this situation and that is achieved with the right mentality.”

Not a midfielder

What these injuries could mean is Rijkaard having to shuffle his pack. Touré Yaya’s absence could be particularly important and Abidal said of this that “we have got some good results with Touré and without him, we certainly don’t want to miss players through injury but we have to remember that in this team we have the players to cover for injuries if necessary.”
But Abidal laughed off suggestions that he could be a useful option to bolster the midfield. “I am a defender, not a midfielder, I am not used to playing in midfield” he said. “To be honest, it’s not a position I fancy very much. There are players that can cover that area and it is up to the boss to decide which of uswill have to do that.”