Barcelona manager Luis Enrique has denied he benched Neymar against Almeria on Wednesday, insisting that the player needed rest following a busy international schedule.

The Brazilian forward sat out Barcelona’s 4-0 win, with Enrique electing to start Pedro up front alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Messi would score his 33rd goal of the season to open the scoring and Suarez would add a brace as the league leaders continued their torrid form in La Liga. They have now won 20 out of their last 21 matches in all competitions and remain four points ahead of second-place Real Madrid – who beat Rayo Vallecano 2-0 later in the evening.

In recent months, Neymar has seen a dip in form and did not feature at all against Almeria on Wednesday, which has led to many people jumping to the conclusion that the Brazilian was dropped from the lineup by Luis Enrique.

Neymar has not scored in his last six La Liga games, and since the start of the New Year he has only tallied six goals and one assist in 12 matches. Prior to January 1, the Brazilian had scored eleven goals while notching three assists in 13 appearances.

Following the match against Almeria, Luis Enrique was asked why he choose to bench Neymar for the entire match.

“Neymar is the only one who didn’t get a rest with his national team,” the manager responded. “So I called on Pedro, who was in the best possible condition.”

Enrique went on to say that he was pleased with his side’s performance and he feels the combative tone of the match was good preparation for their game against Sevilla this weekend.

“We controlled the game and we didn’t suffer much,” Enrique added. “Almeria let us attack on the wings and we took advantage.

“To me, we played at a very high level. We just slowed up a bit when the match was practically over.

“Overall it was a match that will strengthen us for the next one.”

Barcelona will now prepare for an important string of fixtures, beginning with a trip to fifth-place Sevilla on Saturday. Following that match, they will meet Paris Saint-Germain over two legs of their Champions League quarter-final, with a match against fourth-place Valencia sandwiched between those games.