Henry: Adapting

I'm not yet 100% fit so it's not always been easy, but if the boss asks you to play on the right or on the left, you have to do it.

Thierry Henry
Quotes of the week

Related links

Teams

• Barcelona

Thierry Henry told Revista de La Liga he is gradually adapting to a new type of football after swapping Arsenal for Barcelona.

The French superstar - used to being the focal point of the Gunners' quick counter-attacking style during his eight years in England - is taking time to get acquainted with the slow-slow-quick build-up which is Barca's and Spanish football's hallmark.

Henry has spent most of his time so far in Spain on the left of a 4-3-3 formation, and his one goal to date - in the Champions League victory over Lyon - came from a more familiar central striker's position.

"When you play on the left you need to be more than fit," he told Guillem Balague. "You need to get up and down quite often to help out the left-back.

"I need to get used to this again," said the 30-year-old, who was famously converted from winger to centre-forward under Arsene Wenger.

"I'm not yet 100 per cent fit so it's not always been easy, but if the boss asks you to play on the right or on the left, you have to do it. That's the way it is."

It is not just a new role in the side which is challenging this thoughtful student of the game, and he anticipates a settling-in period even if he is moved to the centre.

"I don't set myself targets," he said. "What I want to do is learn, and I need to learn quickly how Barcelona play.

"In England the ball arrives quicker to the striker, here you need to be patient. That will come with time, and with playing more.

"It's a different type of game for the striker here - the game is based more on the guys on the wing. I have to learn and adapt."

If Henry is a work-in-progreess on the pitch, off it he is enjoying his new surroundings - as pictures of him laughing in training with teenage prodigies Bojan Krkic and Giovanni dos Santos suggested.

Both have impressed the former Gunner, who knows a thing or two about talented kids having broken into the Monaco side at 17 and, latterly, played alongside the likes of Cesc Fabregas in north London.

"I always say there is no age in football," he said. "If you are good enough, you play, and if you are playing for Barcelona at the age of 16 you are more than good.

"I've rarely seen a player of his age like Bojan. I saw him playing in the U17 European Championship (Krkic scored the winner in the final against England) and thought 'he's good, but he's only 16'. Then I saw him playing with us and thought 'he's ready'."

But, says Henry, even Krkic has a way to go before he gets near the current darling of the Nou Camp - Lionel Messi.

"Leo is unbelievable. If he is careful he has the world at his feet. He's going to be 'the one' for a very long time."