Luis Enrique said he does not believe Barcelona's recent La Liga win over Atletico Madrid will have a big bearing on Wednesday's Copa del Rey quarterfinal first leg between the teams at the Camp Nou.
Barca did not manage to defeat Diego Simeone's side in any of their six clashes during the 2013-14 season, but in their first meeting of the current campaign they ran out comprehensive 3-1 winners on Jan. 11 after appearing to surprise Atletico with their own whirlwind start.
Blaugrana coach Luis Enrique played down any suggestion at his pregame news conference that he had found a key to beating Simeone's men, while saying that Barca needed to ensure they were tight in defence in their first leg.
"We already have as a reference the games from last season, before the most recent encounter," Luis Enrique said. "I do not believe that our most recent win will have an influence, or give us an advantage, but it does help with our morale.
"For sure there will be new things. It is important not to concede, but we will go out to win as always. We will try and have possession of the ball, that is how we play, and to be very aggressive and together in defence. The result will depend a lot on how we play at the back."
Luis Enrique went into that last meeting amid speculation he would be fired should his team lose the game, but said such things were often over-played in the media.
"I have not had the feeling that my future is on the line in any game," he said. "The only thing we are playing for is to go through against a fearsome opponent over two legs."
The build-up to the previous meeting was dominated by speculation of a fall-out between the coach and superstar Lionel Messi, who was then man of the match, and went on to notch a hat trick in Sunday's 4-0 La Liga victory at Deportivo La Coruna.
Asked if Messi was now the real leader at the Camp Nou, Luis Enrique said he was not interested in contributing to such media narratives.
"I am not here to feed any type of controversy," he said. "What interests me is that the team win games. I have repeated that many times."
After heavily rotating his starting lineup all season, the Asturian coach named the same XI for both the Atletico and Depor victories, but denied that his policy had been affected by recent issues at the club.
"I will keep doing what I have always done as a coach," he said. "I decide based around how we can damage the opponent and how I see my players. We must be faithful to what we see."
Luis Enrique said that the team's pressing when it lost possession -- a tactic singled out by Simeone at his pregame news conference as the reason for Barca's improvement lately -- had long been a priority at the Camp Nou.
"That [pressing] is a collective issue," he said. "It is a concept that has been at Barca for a long while. It helps the play and for the opponent to have no chance of counter-attacking, or that they do so with less accuracy."
It was also confirmed that veteran playmaker Xavi is available again after 10 days out with his latest calf muscle issue, although defender Jeremy Mathieu remains out with an Achilles problem.
"[Xavi] is fully available," Luis Enrique added. "Tomorrow I guess the doctors will give him the medical all clear. [Mathieu] is not yet back for this game."