An Opportunity To Bounce Back, Says Barnes
- Harvey Barnes previews Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace to King Power Stadium (3pm kick-off)
- The England Under-21 international says full focus is on taking all three points from this weekend’s encounter
- Barnes believes it’s only a matter of time before City pick up form again
- Live coverage of the fixture is available for free on both LCFC TV and LCFC Radio
City continue their Premier League campaign at home to Crystal Palace, behind closed doors, this Saturday afternoon - a game you can follow live on new LCFC TV show, City On the Sofa, and LCFC Radio.
And Barnes, who has only missed two of City's 32 Premier League games so far this campaign, believes that while it has been hard to maintain a high performance level since the restart, the squad will get back to their best.
“We’ve not been at the levels that we have been throughout the season,” the 22-year-old admitted, speaking ahead of Saturday’s game. “If we’re not quite playing to where we should be, then results aren’t going to come.
“For us it’s been a tough few weeks coming back, but now it’s about pressing the reset button, getting together as a group and making sure our performances are back to where they should be.
“We have such high standards and went on such a good run earlier in the season that we were bound to have a dip in form at some point. Obviously nobody wants to, but it’s about getting out of that and getting back to where we want to be. That’s our main focus at the minute and we’re just taking it game by game.”
The winger has contributed six goals and six assists from midfield during 2019/20, establishing himself as a key component in the team. He is relishing the chance to get back out on the pitch, albeit with no supporters present once again at King Power Stadium this weekend.
Barnes continued: “It's at home, obviously without the fans, but it will be nice to be back there. After a few bad results, it's good to have a game so quickly after. Sometimes it’s worse if you have a long time to think about it and dwell on things, it can have a negative effect. This gives us the perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways. We’re just going to go straight back into it and hopefully bounce back with a win.”
With third place still in Leicester’s hands going into the weekend’s fixtures, Barnes says the team are solely focusing on the game against Crystal Palace.
“We’re disappointed with the cup [exits] but we had a good run in them and now it gives us full focus on the league,” he added.
“It's hard to look any further than Saturday at the minute, especially because we’ve not got the results we wanted in the first few games. Full focus is on the next game and getting that first win on the table, I think that’s the most important thing and then we can just take it from there.
“It’s about making sure, for the last six games of the season, we’ve got full focus and are picking up as many points as we can.”
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