Mascherano: If Neymar wants to be the best, he has to stay at Barça

FC Barcelona player Javier Mascherano has some advice for team-mate Neymar regarding his future as he tries to thrash out a new deal with the Catalan club. 

"I'm not one to talk about personal subjects, but the truth is I see him happy and comfortable in Barcelona," Mascherano said.

"If he hopes to be the best in the world in the future, he has to stay at Barcelona, because it's the team which bests suits his style. But it's a personal decision."

In any case, the Barça defender doesn't think Neymar is affected by his problems with the tax office: "I have experienced a similar situation. 

"We all have problems in our lives, but the dressing room has experienced desperate situations, such as illnesses. Everything else can be resolved." 

Speaking about the win over Levante, Mascherano said that "something we've evolved in respect to other years is that we can win these types of complicated games."

He credited Luis Enrique for that: "He's a manager that has been able to make us an unpredictable team, although we don't have many secrets because we don't know how to play in any other way."

Mascherano also compared the current crop to the Pep Guardiola side: "Now we have more decisive players in the final third and we don't need to have as many touches and as much possession to reach the opposition's goal." 

With respect to Rafael Benitez's Real Madrid dismissal, he said that he is "not obejective" because "in the three and a half years I had with him at Liverpool he was a very important person - both professionally and personally."