Messi says Valverde still has the backing of the Barcelona squad

Leo Messi was disappointed with Thursday's loss against Atletico Madrid and Barcelona's subsequent elimination from the Spanish Supercopa. 

The Argentine forward felt barça didn't play poorly despite the defeat: "It's a shame because we played really well. It's been a long time since we felt so good. We controlled the game for 80 minutes, taking the match (to Atletico), and then it gets away from us with a couple of untimely mistakes. They were dead before then. In 10 minutes, they turned it around. 

"It's tough to take because a trophy was on the line. We wanted to make the final. We wanted to win it. We gave a different image of ourselves, though, especially in relation to the start we made against Espanyol last week. We played well, but we didn't get the win."

Leo says there is complete confidence in Valverde: "Yes, there's complete confidence in the coach. We're already thinking about the second half of the season. We have a lot to improve. We're top of the league, but we're not playing well and we need to get back on our game. We took a step forward today in that sense, looking beyond the defeat.

"We can't commit schoolboy mistakes like we did. It's normal that when there's a loss, when you don't meet your objectives or you don't play like we like to play, everything's going to be spoken about. We have to be more united than ever and stay strong as a group." 

He doesn't believe the loss was comparable to Roma and Liverpool defeats. "It doesn't have anything to do with those games. We made mistakes with easy balls."