Xavi: “The pressure is now for me, not for the players”

He first posed on the Camp Nou lawn with Vicente Moreno, the Espanyol coach. And then he took a seat in the press room. Not two weeks have passed since Xavi is Barça’s new coach. Not even two weeks in which he has lived after his spectacular initial start, the stadium was even opened to receive a coach, something totally unusual, taking refuge in the sports city of Sant Joan Despí.

Xavi has been trying for days to speed up the implementation of his work method to reactivate a team that has been walking depressingly for years. Xavi has spent days chatting with the players, especially at the individual level, in addition to implementing the new order of coexistence in a changing room eroded by the passage of time, with the leadership questioned since Messi’s departure. “I’m less nervous than when I was a footballer,” he confessed.

🔊 Xavi: “I’m less nervous than when I was a footballer”# BarçaEspanyol pic.twitter.com/3mblwtbj4A

– FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) November 19, 2021

He appeared in the press room of the sports city dressed in a blue tracksuit, work clothes that he has used these days. At first he was alone. With hardly any players due to the exodus of the national teams. Later, with the entire squad. His long and serene speech lasted 32 minutes in which he had time to answer up to 25 questions. “The pressure is now for me and for the staff, not for the players,” acknowledged the new Barça coach.

He has called for the help of the public (“it’s a derby, we need the fans”) to defeat Espanyol and the strength provided by the home players, especially at such a delicate moment. “When things go wrong, they pull the car. The players also feel bad and want to change. They want to regain feelings and win. Whether they are young or old, we are all in the same boat. It is difficult to be a Barça player,” said Xavi.

“This positivism and enthusiasm that has been generated around the club we must return in results from tomorrow,” said Xavi, warning about the “tactical wealth” that the “Espanyol worker of Vicente Moreno” gives off. Although Barça, who are ninth in the league, cannot make more mistakes. “At home it should be like a fort. We played a derby and you can’t miss it,” he stressed.

The key concept of his Barça is clear to him. There are principles that are non-negotiable for the new coach. “We want to play well, create chances in attack, not speculate, press something, play in the opposite field … This way it is easier to reach the result. We cannot fail, we have urgencies. But without putting pressure on the players. I have already told you that the pressure is now on me, not on them. We are restarting a project, we want our game idea to be seen. “

Without Ansu Fati, without Dembélé, without forwards …

The problem is that, as already happened to Koeman, Xavi does not have the necessary resources to propose that game model, based on the game of extremes. “We don’t have Ansu, we don’t have Dembélé, we don’t have Martin,” he said in reference to Braithwaite. Nor to Kun Agüero. “I have not yet decided on the eleven, but we will have to draw young people, they are already prepared. We saw it in the Barça B game,” said the coach.

“It may be that there is some surprise,” revealed the coach, who continues to spin around the eleven with which he will debut on the Camp Nou bench, handcuffed as he is due to the lack of alternatives in attack. That is why he wanted to be understanding with Luuk de Jong (“everyone starts from scratch, everyone must be important,” he said about the Dutchman), in addition to showing his hope with Coutinho.

“He has to regain confidence. He is a player who can be very important for the team and for the club. He has talent. He must meet again. He will have opportunities because he is a footballer that I like personally. It will not be because of talent because he has it,” he said. Xavi said about the Brazilian whom he has urged to regain “lost confidence” after months of even feeling a stranger to himself. “He must find himself again.”

🔊 Xavi about @DaniAlvesD2: “It will add us to everything”# BarçaEspanyol pic.twitter.com/8TeDzmOZHs

– FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) November 19, 2021

“I did not have to be a sergeant or anything. It is a question more of order than of discipline,” he specified regarding the famous code of conduct that he has established in the Barça dressing room. “We must continue with this order. When I have had it, both as a player and now as a coach at Al Sadd, things have worked out. We are a pineapple, we are a family. Rules have been given a lot of importance, but not They have them. It’s a matter of order, you don’t have to shout or be a sergeant, “the coach stressed.

In that sense, he wanted to value the return of Dani Alves very positively. “It was a decision between all of us. The president told me, I gave it a turn and it was done. Dani is going to add us in everything. He is a positive uncle, a winner, who transmits character, has a soul. We have not signed him today for tomorrow but we have seen his last games. He is a spectacular footballer, one of the best at the associative level. He will add us to everything, “said Xavi.

“We have been very heavy”

Then, the coach has acknowledged that he has taken advantage of these days prior to Espanyol’s visit to establish his method at the Camp Nou. “We have been very heavy with the group. We have given the plate a lot. We have been heavy with what we want in defense, in attack, individually, collectively and by lines. I hope that tomorrow we can see things already, both in the game of the team as in the tactical and psychological issue, but we are aware that we are here to get results “.

Hence the need to beat Espanyol to safely start the new project. “I am calm, I am very positive, I am happy and excited. Less nervous than when I was a footballer. The most difficult thing is being a footballer, I want to convey my idea to the players. The feelings are good. I want them to feel happy,” he said. taking all kinds of pressure “on the young.”

🔊 Xavi: “Memphis is a very important player for us”# BarçaEspanyol pic.twitter.com/8kdqG4gaal

– FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) November 19, 2021

But with a speech, at all times, full of ambition. “We are Barça, we must be fighting for all the titles, although we know that we are not starting from scratch. I want to transfer that positive energy. We are not in the position that Barça deserves, they must be at the top fighting for the title and qualified for the next phase of the Champions “, has remembered Xavi.

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He then appealed to what is. And to what has always been. “I am a culé. Now I am the one who has to decide. I am here to make decisions. I think we are going to go well. I am going to give everything to make it go well. I am from Barça, I want it to work. Being a culé I’m going to leave life for this to work. We owe ourselves to many people and we cannot fail them. Values, respect, effort, work, sacrifice cannot be failed. Not in that. The public should feel very proud of the team even when we don’t win. ”