Earlyface

The 35-year-old coach
accepts his side face a
tough task against the
reigning Liga champions
and more specifically in
thwarting their Argentine superstar
Jagoba
Arrasate has urged his
players to
give Lionel Messi a tough night when Real Sociedad face Barcelona on Tuesday. Two of Spain’s four Champions
League representatives will
clash in La Liga at Camp Nou,
with Barca looking to
continue their 100% start to
the season. Ahead of the game,
Arrasate was asked
whether he had a specific
formula in mind to stop
Argentine sensation Messi,
who already has nine goals for the season. The 35-year-old said at his
press conference:
“Hopefully the team can
work together and make
life difficult for him. “Messi is the best player in
the world and he has so
many weapons in his
armoury. “Explaining how to stop
him on a white board is one
thing, actually doing it on
the pitch is another.” Real have made an
unconvincing start to the
new season, picking up just
six points from five league
games while suffering
defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening Champions
League encounter. Arrasate puts the results
down to a poor run of form
rather than any deeper-
lying issues and urged his
side to go into the game
against Barcelona with a positive mindset. He explained: “We started
the season well, but right
now we are not in top form.
However, we are happy
with our defensive work.
I’m sure we will regain that spark in attack. “Scoring goals is the hardest
thing in football – that is
why strikers are more
expensive. The goals will
arrive sooner or later and
we will give our fans plenty to shout about. “If you sit back and defend
at the Camp Nou, you may
well be in for a long 90
minutes. We have to come
out and show an ability to
play with the ball at our feet. “We can’t go there feeling
like we’ve already been
beaten, because we will be
in for a difficult time if we
do. “We must not think that it is
normal to lose. It will be a
very difficult game, but if
we play like we’re capable
of, we can have a big say in
the outcome of the game.”