Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Barcelona's Mathieu surprised to play left-back, see Suarez on the wing

Barcelona defender Jeremy Mathieu has appeared to criticise his team's tactics during the 3-1 clasico defeat to Real Madrid last weekend, while saying he was "surprised" to have been asked to play the game at full-back and that Luis Suarez was played on the wing.

Mathieu has played mostly as a centre-half for Barcelona since joining from Valencia for 20 million euros last summer, although he has operated through much of his career as a full-back and played there in early October's 2-0 win at Rayo Vallecano.

Blaugrana boss Luis Enrique decided to play the Frenchman on the left side of the defence for Saturday's game at the Bernabeu, with Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano starting at centre-back, a decision which the 30-year-old told French station RTL and picked up in Sport, had come as a surprise.

"I was surprised to see I was playing at left-back," Mathieu said. "But the coach is the one who decides."

It was also perhaps not such a good idea for 80 million euro summer signing Luis Suarez to have been fielded wide on the right-wing as he finally made his Barca debut, Mathieu said.

"It would be a pity if [Suarez] played on the wing, because he is a natural forward," he said.

Mathieu also quite bluntly pointed out that Barca had struggled -- as so often in recent clasicos -- dealing with Madrid's danger on the counter-attack and set-pieces.

"We started the game very well, but we were very exposed to their counter-attacks, which is Madrid's great strength," he said. "Plus their second goal did us a lot of damage. Despite the team now having tall players like Pique, [Sergio] Busquets and myself, it is true that we still have problems at set-pieces. We have to work more on that."

The former Sochaux and Toulouse player, who has also been recalled to the France national squad since his move to Barca last summer, said that despite the disappointment of losing the clasico he was currently in a highpoint of his career.

"I believe this is the best moment of my career, having arrived at Barca and being with the France team," Mathieu added. "Before I had to watch the clasicos on the television, and on Saturday I was playing."

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