Valverde: When Barcelona lose you always look at the coach Barcelona Spaniard is under pressure once again

Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde has come under a lot of pressure in recent days, following the Blaugrana's 3-1 loss away at Levante on Saturday, yet he has looked to explain the reasons behind the surprise defeat.

That loss is Barcelona's third of the campaign in LaLiga Santander, as many as they suffered in the Spanish top flight last season, and Valverde pointed to their frustrations in attack as a reason behind the slip-up.

"When you lose you always look at the coach," Valverde said in Barcelona's pre-match press conference.

"That is the case and I assume it.

"The other day Levante scored against us with their first shot.

"We controlled the game until we lost it, we were not good in attack and we have to improve."

Understandably, Valverde came into this season with pressure already on him after crashing out of the Champions League in embarrassing fashion for the second year in a row, losing a three-goal advantage against both Roma and Liverpool, and he sent an indirect message to some of his critics.

"When you lose a game, you have more pressure [put on you as a coach of a big team]," Valverde noted.

"We know what it means to lose a game. It generates a tidal wave of pressure.

"It's all right with us because it forces you to react.

"There's always a tidal wave, even when you win and you have a good all-round game."

In terms of analysing just what went wrong at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia, Valverde wanted to make clear that both he and the players need to look at what led to them losing the game.

"When we lose a match, I try to find the football reasons [as to why]," Valverde explained.

"At the beginning of the season we were not good, especially away from home. Then we had a three-game winning streak away.

"The other day, when everything was on track, we lost it in a minute.

"We must ask ourselves why we have lost and [analyse] the relationships on the pitch that have led us to this."

Ousmane Dembele was controversially left out of the squad for the Levante game, despite having returned from a two-game suspension, and it came back to haunt Valverde as he could not call upon the mercurial Frenchman from the bench, although he backs his decision.

"Everyone always has to earn their place," Valverde stated.

"When he plays, he can stay in that position [in the line-up if he plays well].

"As it happens to Ansu [Fati], Luis [Suarez], [Antoine] Griezmann or [Gerard] Pique.

"When you have your chance, you will have to try and stay [in the team]."