Quique Setien believes this two week 'preseason' is key

It’s been 26 days since Quique Setien arrived at Barcelona and the coach hasn’t had a breath yet. With two games a week, he’s given more press conferences than real training sessions.

The matches against Athletic and Real Betis show Barcelona are in a better mental state, but there’s still a lot to correct on the pitch. They must work on the team’s weaknesses and finally they have time to do it, without moving away from Barcelona.

They have a week without games until Getafe on Saturday, at home, then another clash at home against Eibar the weekend after. Quique considers this 15 day period a pre-season for the group to better understand the tactics and mechanisms he wants to use, above all when bringing the ball out.

He’s used 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, but not found exactly what he wants. Setien now has time to work on that, although he doesn’t love fixed schemes either.

For now, three at the back loses weight in his plans. Umtiti is at a low level, while Lenglet is banned next week and Pique has been injured and suspended.

Quique also wants to work on building play. “Not even the players themselves are conscious of what they are capable of in the right context,” said the coach. Now he’s got the chance to find that right context.

The team will also benefit physically. Messi has had a minor injury for weeks, Pique is between cotton wool and a great part of the squad admits they lack freshness. “We finished dead but with the three points,” said Sergi Roberto after the Betis win.

And finally, these 15 days can be used to freshen the atmosphere which has been bad since the start of the year. Time to get to work. Two weeks isn’t a lot but it’s the only concession the calendar can give.