"There was no dressing down, therefore no explanation is needed", says Martino

The Barcelona dressing room analysed its performance against Ajax and, according to Gerardo Martino, it was too self-critical. The defeat to Ajax was painful, but the manager would happily lose one game for every twenty wins.

He has a clear plan for San Mamés. "I expect an aggressive team that goes for the win," he said on the eve of his side's visit to Bilbao.

Martino does not want the experience against Ajax to turn into a self-destructive downward spiral. "We have to ensure that it doesn't mark the start of a negative process. We've spoken about what happened, but we also had three great months before that which we mustn't forget."

Martino was surprised to hear news that he allegedly gave the squad a dressing down after the defeat last Tuesday. "I don't have to clear up something I didn't say. What we did was talk with the players. In any case, it's only fair that whoever gave that statement should offer an explanation, not me, because I didn't say anything," he explained.

In order to overcome the 'minicrisis' he wanted to separate two concepts. "I always try to identify our mistakes, firstly our footballing ones, because that is the coach's responsibility," he said. The entire squad has to work on matters of attitude.