Ousmane Dembele was unable to dazzle as he came off the bench to return from a month on the sidelines in Barcelona’s goalless draw with Getafe on Sunday.
“Dembele came on at a moment when we thought he could help us out by running at players in one-on-one situations,” Valverde said at his postmatch news conference.
“Maybe you could tell that he’s not played a lot of football recently, though, because it didn’t go quite as well as he would have liked against a strong opponent.
“He had to try and use his strengths, which is when he’s up against players and driving at them. He didn’t have much luck with that today, but it’s better that he tried those things than to not try anything.”
Valverde said he was impressed with how his makeshift defence had coped with the sporadic Getafe threat.
“The positive news was the performance of the two centre-backs, Yerry and Lucas, who both did well,” the coach added. “Lucas was out of position and it was Yerry’s first start, so it wasn’t the usual defence but we got through the game without too many scares.
“At the beginning they had to adapt quickly because Getafe were pressing high. They got better as the game went on and we were able to play out from the back as usual. We are happy with them because it was a difficult role.”
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