Barcelona’s bump in Almería is a brake to the growth of Xavi as a coach. It was the day he had to win to escape 10 points from Real Madrid and forget the elimination from the Europa League. He did not do it because, according to Xavi, the team lacked passion, illusion and intensity in a very bad first part. He did not find solutions in the second, with different changes and Araújo as a striker to finish off the immensity of balls hanging in the area. The worst Barça of the season was seen and the most overcome and frustrated Xavi. The coach is the one most responsible for making the project work after Laporta has put the club in debt with the spending of millionaire transfers that are not enough to compete in Europe and disappoint in key events such as Almería.
The difference of seven points with Real Madrid is still an important advantage, but the missed golden opportunity means that the ghosts of a landslide appear in the League. It would be historic and inexcusable. There is still a lot of La Liga to play, 45 points at stake and Xavi, frustrated and anguished, pressed the SOS button with these words: “It’s going to cost us. We didn’t win it too much. We compete against Real Madrid, League and Champions League champions” . The hardest thing for Xavi is building a competitive team and he remembers the capacity that Real Madrid has to get up when he’s on the canvas. His anger, where you can see gestures of exhaustion, is to give life to Real Madrid in the League after the puncture of Ancelotti’s team in the derby.
He is a young coach, but with enough experience in Barcelona and blows to already have a stronger block in football and mentally. He doesn’t get it and that’s what causes an excited technician to look. Xavi’s nerves, how he lives and directs the matches, reveal an upset coach, who loses his temper on crucial days. Like at Old Trafford when the Movistar cameras shout at a rival player, with serious insults. The tension that he has causes, in the heat of his protests to the referees, repeated, he misses the next league game, against Valencia, for seeing the fifth yellow card.
tense and frustrated
Xavi would like to enjoy his team’s game more, live the games calmer, get the results with more solvency and compete better. He doesn’t get it and he explodes as he did in Almería to talk about the little passion of his players. He went so far as to say in the press room that “we have not shown desire to win and that is what worries me the most”. Barcelona has a deceptive dynamic in the League. Regular, but with many victories with a fair score. They beat Atleti, Betis, Getafe, Girona, Villarreal by a minimum and suffered against Cádiz at the Camp Nou. It is not a round Barcelona, which plays good football from start to finish. It is a team that has come out ahead thanks to the contribution of two key players: Ter Stegen and Araújo.
Ulises Sanchez-Flor
Only Barcelona can lose the League. He no longer has to compete in Europe, so the calendar clears up for him and the players have to be fresher. But the accident in Almería confirms that it is not a reliable team and that it will depend more on the failures of Real Madrid than on its successes. Xavi said, at the beginning of the season, that “it is the squads that win the titles” and that “whoever plays does not have to be noticed because we have a choice”. He realizes that it is not so.
There is a group of players who do not measure up and he pointed them out in the disappointing game against Almería. He started with a defense made up of Sergi Roberto, Christensen, Eric García and Jordi Alba, and changed it. Only the Danish center-back finished the game. He turned to Araújo to catch a ball hanging from the pot and he put two boys, Pablo Torre and Ángel Alarcón, in a bewilderment of substitutions and twists in the system that did not improve anything. Barcelona not only lost due to a lack of passion and intensity. They competed badly due to the absence of football and a squad that is not as good as Xavi thought.
Barcelona’s bump in Almería is a brake to the growth of Xavi as a coach. It was the day he had to win to escape 10 points from Real Madrid and forget the elimination from the Europa League. He did not do it because, according to Xavi, the team lacked passion, illusion and intensity in a very bad first part. He did not find solutions in the second, with different changes and Araújo as a striker to finish off the immensity of balls hanging in the area. The worst Barça of the season was seen and the most overcome and frustrated Xavi. The coach is the one most responsible for making the project work after Laporta has put the club in debt with the spending of millionaire transfers that are not enough to compete in Europe and disappoint in key events such as Almería.
