Karanka shakes off Guardiola mind games

Real Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka said his side have taken no notice of Pep Guardiola’s mind games.

Guardiola recently predicted his Barcelona side have no chance of catching Real at the top of La Liga.

The Madrid outfit sit eight points clear of Barca and Karanka revealed that Guardiola’s comments had no impact on the team.

“I think that in football many times people say things that they don’t really think,” Karanka said.

“This is not the first time that this (mind games) has happened. People have always used these tactics and we are not really interested in what some have to say. What we are focusing on is working the way we have been so far.”

“We are focusing on the next three points and that’s how we’ve got to where we are today. We are having a great season with fantastic statistics and we have to continue this way.”

“We are top of the table and we know that if we change the way we work we could go wrong. When things are going well, there’s no reason to change.”

Barcelona can put pressure on Real and reduce the margin to five points if they beat Granada at the Nou Camp on Tuesday.

Real face a danger match on Wednesday at Villarreal, who will be guided by new coach Miguel Angel Lotina, who was appointed on Monday, and Karanka said he was not sure what to expect.

“We do not know what kind of Villarreal we will find,” he said. “It will not be the Villarreal of (Manuel) Pellegrini, (Juan Carlos) Garrido or (Jose) Molina.”