Barcelona was in turmoil at the beginning of the year- Javier Macherano

Babalola Tomiwa

Argentiona midfielder, Javier Mascherano has revealed that Barcelona's issues at the beginning of the 2015 was due to the internal issues at the club.

The Catalans resumed the second half of the Spanish league losing 0-1 to David Moyes' Real Sociedad, which led Lionel Messi's to cast doubt about his future at the club.

But Barcelona seemed to have put all that behind them as they have overtaken Real Madrid at the top of the league table and also displacing the former league leaders to sit atop the Liga table once more following their Clasico win over Real Madrid.

"We started the year with difficulties, with the defeat at Anoeta, which left us four points behind Real Madrid," Mascherano told TyC Sports.

"Things weren't so good behind the scenes. The team seemed to have doubts.

"But this situation has now disappeared. This is the situation we live in. The demands at Barcelona are massive and it's not easy to meet them."

The former Liverpool player insists that Real are still title contenders that the four points that seperates the two sides does not guarantee yet that the Nou Camp have won the league already.

"Now we're four points ahead of Real Madrid. But this could always be turned on its head. The best thing is to always focus on the next game," he said.

"Clasicos are difficult games, against opponents that push you to the limit, that are as good as our team. You need to try your hardest for every minute of the game, and that's what helped us to win. That's why we got the result we did.

"We're aware that we didn't beat Real Madrid with our best football. Barcelona always like to win, and especially to be better in a footballing sense, over and above the result." Goal