Valverde on Messi: "He's Hard to Compare"
"It's very difficult to tell Messi if you've seen this or another player when he's doing something in training that you haven't even seen," Valverde said in a video conference organized by the Basque Football Federation moderated by Mikel Etxarri in which he participated with Xabier Azkargorta, Aitor Karanka, and Roberto Olabe.
Valverde, who was sacked last January after two and a half seasons at the helm, added that the Argentine star is an "easy player to train" and has "great impetus with respect to the group, because he has a great ambition to win."
"That makes him feel a great obligation to the club and the game, and it obliges everyone to be at a very high level," added the 'Txingurri', for whom elite coaches have the obligation to be "in the spotlight and not let anyone down."
"You have to be there for each player, for the goalkeeper coach, the kitman, the press officer. I try to bring the work group together and give a lot of confidence to the people around me. Wherever I've been, I've chosen to bring in people from the club, involve them in the group, and give them a lot of leeway," he explained.
Referring to Athletic Bilbao, whom he coached in two stints (2003-2005 and 2013-2017), he stressed that "managing the youth academy is an advantage" and "not an added pressure," because the players who are "close to the first team have a solid foundation."
"You know how they breathe and that the transition to the first team is going to be easy," he pointed out.
"There have been players in recent years who have entered without any transition. Yeray is a clear case, or Córdoba," he commented.
On the other hand, regarding the comparison between the current game and his time as a player, he believes that "football has evolved immensely" because of the "very high difference in pace" and it is played with "more teamwork and superior precision."
"Technical perfection is increasing. Sometimes I watch a game that I played in and I almost don't want to look at it," Valverde joked.