Valverde: Todibo looking good but I want to see him in a competitive game
The young Frenchman has made a good start to life at Barça
Two new defenders were added to the Barcelona squad in January to provide competition for Piqué, Lenglet, Umtiti and Vermaelen.
With the arrival of Murillo and Todibo, Barça now have six centre-backs. Everyone except Todibo has debuted for the club.
The reason for that is that Barça brought his signing forward six months so that he didn't spent any more time at Toulouse frozen out of the first team. Initially he was a signing for the summer. That changed. For Valverde, Todibo was an unknown quantity, but he's now been able to check him out in training.
And the sensations are good. Valverde's delighted with the French teenager. Speaking before Saturday's game against Real Valladolid, he was full of praise -- with one caveat.
"We are seeing the qualities he has: he's strong, quick, powerful, young... he's leaving a good impression," the Barça coach said.
"But we have still not been able to see him in a competitive match, not even in a friendly because of the schedule we have. I would like to, because it's one thing to train and another to compete and play. It's the competition which marks you."
WAITING FOR UMTITI
The re-appearance of Samuel Umtiti is close, but Valverde didn't reveal when it will be: "It's true he's not played muc hin a long time and we have decisive games coming up, but he's an important player and we hope he's OK for these games."
Umtiti has been back in full training for a week but has not played since November because of a knee injury.
