Barca well-placed and with room for improvement, says coach

By Tim Hanlon BARCELONA (Reuters) - Barcelona coach Luis Enrique is happy with their position on the shoulders of La Liga leaders Real Madrid given the Catalans can only improve in the New Year. They swept aside lowly Cordoba 5-0 at the Camp Nou on Saturday to move a point behind Real having played a game extra. However, three of the goals came in the final 10 minutes and there were again spells in the game when Barca failed to link up well. Luis Enrique was brought in after Barca failed to win a major trophy last season under Gerardo Martino and he has constantly switched personnel and tactics as he seems unsure of his preferred formula. Barca have been overshadowed by a Real side that are on a record 21-match winning run and were well beaten when the two met in La Liga at the Bernabeu in October but going into the mid-season break, the gap at the top is far from insurmountable. "Considering that we have to improve in all areas of our play we are not doing so badly," Luis Enrique told a news conference. "We lost a game against Celta when we hit the woodwork four times and so we could be better positioned. We don’t need to beat ourselves up over being four points behind. "I consider that the team is in transition and during the season we will improve but there will still be difficult matches. We were clearly inferior at the Bernabeu although away to Paris St Germain (in the Champions League) we could have avoided defeat." The coach is confident the team are making progress even if there will still be ups and downs. "When you don’t get the result that you are looking for then it is a setback and it can have an adverse affect," he said. "Generally I think that the points reflect where the team is at the moment. We will improve and there will be matches where we are not at the necessary level but we are a team that can battle it out with Madrid and Atletico until the end." (Editing by Mark Meadows; mark.meadows@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7933; Reuters Messaging:; mark.meadows.reuters.com@reuters.net)