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Setien: Of course Messi has to rest, but the scoreline was too tight

  /  autty

Quique Setien has admitted that he's struggling to find time to rest Lionel Messi during the remainder of the LaLiga Santander season.

Barcelona kept pace with Real Madrid in the title race with a 1-0 victory over Real Valladolid on Saturday, but it was never a foregone conclusion.

"Of course," Setien replied when asked whether Messi needed a rest.

"I've said it before, but the score was too tight.

"If we'd have scored more goals in the first half, maybe more players would've been rested.

"The team was tired.

"They had players up front with quality and committed men forward.

"We couldn't cover the whole pitch.

"We had to drop back and that made it more difficult for us.

"We should've put the match to bed in the first half - we could've scored two or three goals.

"[There was] the anxiety of knowing that you're only 1-0 up and that they can score at any moment.

"In the second half, we struggled.

"We noticed fatigue in some players to a point."

Luis Suarez was one who did get a rest, starting the game on the bench, but he came on for Antoine Griezmann at half-time.

"It's good to give him a rest," Setien said about the Uruguayan.

"Suarez had played five full games in a row and had to rest at some point.

"[Griezmann] came off because of some [injury] problems.

"He asked to come off himself.

"We'll see [what's wrong with him]."

The win sees Barcelona close the gap to Real Madrid to one point at the top of the table, so are they doing enough to win the title?

"We're doing enough to be better than where we are," Setien continued.

"I don't know if [it's enough] to win LaLiga because [Real Madrid] are winning all their games.

"We've done enough [against Valladolid] and we've created lots of chances and we weren't clinical enough in the end."