Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde hopes Luis Suarez benefits from the rest after he was left on the bench in the 6-1 thrashing of Eibar on Tuesday.

The Uruguayan has just one goal in five outings for Barca in all competitions this season and has been troubled by a knee problem.

Valverde opted to leave the former Liverpool man on the bench on Tuesday as Barcelona recorded a convincing victory, thanks to a four-goal haul from Lionel Messi.

Valverde is confident Suarez will rediscover his best form sooner rather than later and had no concerns over giving the forward a rest against Eibar.

“I thought it would be good for him to rest [against Eibar],” Valverde told reporters.

“But he feels OK, and I concluded it would be fine for him to have a little rest and we hope it will help him in every way.”

Valverde was also quick to heap the praise on summer buy Paulinho, who scored for the second consecutive game with Barca’s second just before half time.

He added: “Paulinho has a different profile than other players we have, it’s true that our players had a formation for a ‘position game’ for many years.

“Paulinho is a more forceful player, a player who comes from deep and he gets to the penalty box following our strategy. We try to cover all our options or have different roles for different games.”

Barcelona are 1.85 to win La Liga outright and 7.00 to win the Champions League.