Up to the tone of XaviTraditionally vital and full of optimism, he seemed lower than usual. The painful defeat against Betis, “a direct rival for Barça” in the fight for the Champions League positions, as the man himself had recognized Jordi Alba, had a ruinous effect on the spirits of the new coach who has run into, four games later, with the same problems that strangled Koeman sportively.
It is a team without a goal, deeply weak in the spirit, unable to assimilate its new condition as a member of the middle class of Spanish football, estranged every day that passes from the aristocracy, trembling, also, before the final on Wednesday in Munich where it can stay out of the Champions League at the beginning of December.
And that is not only a sporting problem because it would certify the fall to the second European division but it is a serious economic problem for a bankrupt club that needs every euro like air to breathe.
Now, the Barça is drowned. Live in a critical situation. Both in the League (I would need binoculars to watch Madrid, the leader, who has 16 points) and in the Champions League, on the edge of the precipice on the way to the Europa League.
Of more less
Although he claimed to be “proud” of his players’ behavior, Xavi found that old structural flaws remain unsolved. The team has gone from more to less.
He emitted more exciting signals in the first two games (a narrow win over Espanyol, a dramatic draw against Benfica that forces him to play everything in Munich, the worst possible scenario) than in the last two.
Xavi knows that he needs time to inject his ideas. But Xavi also knows that he doesn’t have it
Not even the triumph over Villarreal (the first outside the Camp Nou that Barça achieved) left the coach calm because he saw things, too many things that he did not like. The same critical message he launched after conceding his first defeat on the bench.
You know you need time to inject your ideas. But he also knows Xavi that it does not have it, tremendously conditioned by the casualties that punish its starting forwards, fixing everything on the fragile and irregular Dembélé. It is, therefore, the same landscape in which he lived Koeman.
The hard life without Ansu
Both dispossessed of Ansu Fati (the most accurate forward), who has only enjoyed the interim Sergi Barjuan In the last month and a half: 86 minutes he played in Kiev against Dinamo and scored a goal, which gave the team assisted breathing in Europe. 45 minutes later in Balaídos against Celta and a goal to start the 0-3 that seemed to give tranquility, although it ended up being an unexpected 3-3.
“They can’t catch you in a counter, we have to be tactically smarter, do something wrong”
Xavi, Barça coach
In Vigo Ansu broke and since then Xavi, who made his debut on November 20, has not been able to have it. And he does not want to take risks now because he needs Ansu throughout the season. Not only on Wednesday in Munich, tired as the coach is to see how the players relapse from old physical problems.
Tactically immature
Furthermore, Barça does not have the tactical stability or emotional cohesion to overcome blows such as Juanmi’s goal, which silenced a respectful Camp Nou. Respectful because he had no complaints about the team – no whistles, no cloths, or anything at all – which is getting smaller with the passage of the games.
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“They can’t catch you in a fight, we have to be tactically smarter, make a mistake. We had to stop those cons, we had worked on it,” said Xavi, hurt (“it’s been a shame, it’s too much punishment”) because Barça he does not learn, condemned to wander in anxiety.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com