Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Luis Enrique interested in Barcelona's trophy chances, not goal statistics

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said records set in October were of limited interest to him after his defence kept a seventh straight La Liga clean sheet in Saturday's 2-0 win at Rayo Vallecano.

Barca remained top of the Primera Division standings thanks to quick-fire goals from Lionel Messi and Neymar just before halftime, seeing out the game without problem as Rayo had both Jorge Morcillo and substitute Javier Aquino sent off after the break.

The result means Barca have now scored 19 goals in their first seven La Liga games of the campaign, while not conceding even once as they have accumulated 19 points to sit two clear of second-placed Valencia in the table.

But the Blaugrana boss said in his post-game news conference at Vallecas that the only prizes that interested him this season are trophies won when all the games were played.

"The statistics that interest me are those at the end of the season," Luis Enrique said. "We will see if we are deserving of winning some trophies. They do not matter at all if you do not win trophies."

The game is most likely to be remembered for Barca goalkeeper Claudio Bravo keeping yet another clean sheet, stretching his unbeaten run without conceding from the start of the season to a record 630 minutes.

Luis Enrique was most interested in praising the collective defensive, after he had again rotated his defence and started Gerard Pique and Marc Bartra at centre-back.

"Apart from what the record means, we like the defensive effort, and even more against such a difficult opponent," he said. "It was difficult from the start of the game. The players were at the required level. We have improved on a defensive level. Our objective is to create more than the opponent, and for them to have few chances. If we are more accurate in attack then it is less likely we will lose."

The Messi and Neymar partnership once again coming good was another positive thing to take from the game, Luis Enrique said.

"It is good for the team that these relationships between players continue," he said. "So we can arrive in the area with different options. We have more options in attack."

There were also kind words for Jeremy Mathieu, who had stayed in the XI, but was moved across to left-back.

"For his physical and technical ability he can play there perfectly well," Luis Enrique said. "We had weighed it up. We like to have these type of versatile players."

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