The Blaugrana boss lavished praise on the Spain
international after his second treble of the season but admitted that
his side need to defend better, particularly from set-pieces
Tata Martino spoke in glowing terms about hat-trick hero Pedro after Barcelona came from behind to defeat Getafe 5-2 at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez on Sunday evening.After the Blaugrana had conceded twice inside the opening quarter, the Spain international scored three times in the space of nine remarkable minutes shortly before the break to send the visitors in a goal to the good at half-time.
While Pedro's performance certainly had his coach purring after a game that was eventually sealed by Cesc Fabregas' second-half double, Martino freely admitted that the Liga leaders had been given plenty of food for thought during the winter break.
“[Pedro] played a fantastic game,” the Argentine told reporters afterwards. "But then, he always scores. Pedro’s secret is that he never gives up. That’s why every coach ends up loving him.
“[But Gerard] Pique should have scored to put us in front, and then we had 10, 20 extremely poor minutes that could have cost us.
"Still, we kept our style and had 70 more good minutes. Football-wise, the team gets better each game.
"But in terms of things we should improve, for sure, keeping clean sheets and defending set-pieces better."
As for Pedro, he was delighted at having made the most of another opportunity to prove his worth to the Catalan club in the continued absence of injured talisman Lionel Messi and the suspended Neymar.
“I try to add things [when starting for Barcelona], and then it’s up to the coach to decide,” he told reporters after collecting the match ball.
“I’m getting many chances now and I have to take them. I’m happy with the reaction of the team after 2-0. We were able to react; the attitude was good." ------------------- goal.com
No comments:
Post a Comment