Pedri self-critical after Barcelona's loss to Real Madrid: "We weren't ourselves"

Losing a Clasico hurts differently. And Pedri didn't try to hide it. No excuses, no looking for scapegoats: the Canary Islands native stepped up with a serious look on his face to explain why Barcelona walked away empty handed at Spotify Camp Nou after falling 1-2 to Real Madrid in Matchday 10 of La Liga.

"This is a long season" was the phrase he repeated most. A way of asking for calm, of reminding everyone that a season isn't decided in a single game, no matter how big the Clasico is.

"The league is very long. This is a game we all want to win to dedicate to the fans. We're leaving sad, but we have to think about the next match. You don't win a league here"Pedri

What stood out was that Pedri didn't shy away from breaking down what went wrong. He was self-critical, direct, almost surgical with the details. He admitted the team didn't play "a great match" and that the first half, in particular, slipped away from them without the team ever looking like itself on the field.

"We weren't ourselves. We were missing a lot of things we could have done better," explained the midfielder, who also walked through how the script changed in the second half: Barcelona managed to equalize, and just as things seemed to be clicking, the blow came. Real Madrid's goal came on a transition that, as the player himself admitted, they failed to defend properly.

Slow on the ball, costly mistake

Pedri went further and put his finger on the underlying problem: the lack of "rhythm on the ball" before halftime. The Canary Islander spoke of a team that was "very slow" in its buildup, with "a lot of careless turnovers" that, against a rival like Real Madrid, end up costing you dearly.

He didn't need to dramatize it. The point came across clearly anyway: against the big teams, mistakes that sometimes go unnoticed turn into goals. And that, broadly speaking, is what happened to Barcelona in its own stadium.

Now comes what Pedri already signaled: looking ahead. The league, as he himself pointed out, is long, and this stumble in the Clasico offers a clear lesson on what needs fixing before the next match.