Barcelona coach underlines team's need to get back to winning ways

ATHENS, Oct. 31, 2017 (Xinhua) -- Barcelona's head coach Ernesto Valverde speaks during a press conference at Karaiskaki Stadium in Piraeus near Athens, Greece, on Oct. 30, 2017. Barcelona will play against Olympiakos in a Champions League group D soccer match on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis/IANS)

Barcelona, Feb 16 (IANS) FC Barcelona's coach Ernesto Valverde has stressed that his team needs to claim victories again in La Liga after two draws in the most recent matches, underscoring at the same time that winning trophies was the way to keep his job.

Although the Catalan club is still atop the La Liga standings, the gap with its historical rival Real Madrid has been narrowed to six points, as Barcelona was held to two draws in a row during its last Spanish league matches against Valencia (2-2) and Athletic Bilbao (0-0), reports Efe news.

"We start a sequence of games in which we play in three competitions. We want to win again in La Liga," Valverde said in a press conference on Friday evening.

"We are going through moments when everything is decided and we have to be alert for all the details in these matches, including tomorrow's," Valverde stressed.

Meanwhile, the coach expressed his hopes that France defender Samuel Umtiti would be available shortly to him after recovering from his knee injury because he was an important player for the team.

Although Valverde had signed a one-year contract extension earlier in the day, he confirmed that he, as a coach of a big club like Barcelona, would have to earn titles to be able to remain as the first team's head coach.

"At the moment of signing a contract, the intentions of the clubs and the coaches are always the best," Valverde said.

"But in the end, we all know what football is like and everything is judged based on the results," he added.