Xavi: “I am the person in charge, we must say things to each other’s faces”

“Cádiz has been very good defensively, with a great goalkeeper. We have to improve and put in something else. We have a lot at stake. We have to be self-critical, we have to work better collectively. I am the most responsible. We have to say things to each other’s faces. This is Barça. I’m pissed off, I’m angry.”

Xavi Hernandez, the Barcelona manager, is bewildered that his team has collapsed. He already did it against Eintracht and has repeated with Cádiz. “Things have been lacking, many things, we have to be competitive. The goal is to go to the Champions League at least”, indicated the Barça coach.

“It’s the same team that won 0-4 with a great game at the Bernabéu and also with another great game with 1-0 against Sevilla. We are the same. But they have had much more faith than us, that’s why we must improve. It’s key get ahead on the scoreboard, we haven’t done it”, admitted Xavi, hurt by the lack of intensity exhibited by his team. “You have to show more hunger, more faith, more character, this was a final and we haven’t played it as such”.

“We have not failed in our attitude. The players want to. It is a matter of faith. This time I have to put everything to score. And faith to defend better, we need that competitive character that the opponents have. And Cádiz has shown it since the first minute. We have to do self-criticism”, the Barça coach has reiterated on several occasions.

Little by little the tone of his words rose. “You have to be humble and think that we haven’t done anything. To be in the Champions League next year you have to play with more faith, determination and drive,” said Xavi, hurt because his players didn’t understand the dimension of the game. Not the significance.

For this reason, the second defeat (Eintracht and Cádiz) has placed the coach in a delicate situation, not because he does not continue to depend on himself but because his team has collapsed. “We have lacked desire and that cannot be.”

Xavi did not want to take refuge in the absence of Pique Y Araujo, the defensive pillars of his team. “We also have casualties like those of Ansu or Pedri. It can’t be an excuse. We had to win and we lost. We have to compete better. Competing in this way doesn’t work for us. We have to qualify for the next Champions League no matter what,” he said. underlined.

“We haven’t played a good game. But we should have gone ahead, but on Thursday we have another final,” said the coach, totally changing his speech after the interview with Ricardo Rosety, just after the match ended. “We can’t grant so many chances and we must take advantage of the ones we generate. There are seven finals left and we have to grit our teeth and improve”.