Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has claimed that he has "lots of love" for Gerard Pique, despite leaving the defender out of Tuesday's 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen.
The centre-back has come under recent criticism after Barca dropped ten points behind Real Madrid in the race for the La Liga title.
However, Guardiola told reporters that he was resting Pique for Sunday's match against Valencia.
"On Saturday we don't have [Javier] Mascherano or [Dani] Alves, so I couldn't afford to lose Gerard," he said.
"I called up [Marc] Bartra because we needed him and I wanted him to be on the bench. Pique knows that I have lots of love for him. For us, he's untouchable."
Pique joined the Spanish giants from Manchester United in 2008.
