Barça leaves the derby confused and worried

Barça leaves the derby confused. Confused and worried. He continues to lead, but has lost the two-point cushion that he held over Madrid. The problem is that Xavi’s team became entangled in such a way that they missed the possibility of remaining alone at the head of the League. Even the coach, aware of the seriousness of the mistake made on New Year’s Eve 2022 with that draw against Espanyol, expressed his discomfort. He has been on the bench at the Camp Nou for a year and a month and his team has not just really started. He comes and goes without finding cruising speed, eliminated as he was in the Champions League.

“I am angry with myself. We are all angry,” acknowledged the Barca coach after that match with the blue and white team. It is the second tie of the season in the League. Both at the Camp Nou, the first day against Rayo and the last day with the parakeet team), which frustrates Barça’s plans.

He unexpectedly frustrates the Barça team because he did not have the lucidity or the necessary aim to defeat Espanyol in diego martinezwho found in the Camp Nou the loot necessary to inject a dose of self-esteem, just what is now damaged in the Barça universe, no matter how much he continues to rule in the League.

decreasing trend

But the trend in the game was downward, despite the fact that the victories were supporting Barcelona. That valuable and agonizing goal from Lewandowski at Mestalla against Valencia (0-1, minute 90 + 3) together with the goal salvador de raphinha in Pamplona to Osasuna (1-2, minute 85) they had hidden the decline in performance. However, that goal against Espanyol did not come and the team, as Xavi himself confessed, condemned itself.

He does not even have the excuse of the mad arbitration of Mateu Lahoz (15 yellow cards, two sent off and one sent off, Cabrera, although the VAR later withdrew his red card) because the problem lay with Barça itself. “The tie is our fault. I don’t blame Mateu for anything, even though he has completely lost control of the game,” admitted the coach.

“The draw is our fault. I don’t blame Mateu for anything, even though he totally lost control of the game”

Xavi, coach of Barça

The one who did not have the derby under control was Barcelona. It started with dynamism and energy, especially in the first half hour, unable as Espanyol was to almost cross the center of the field. But that dominance was of no use to him.

Barça had the ball more than ever this season (78% possession), but lost two points in Espanyol’s only shot on goal: Joselu’s penalty

It was a flat domain and without any forcefulness, no matter how much he ended up shooting up to 21 times during the almost 100 minutes that the derby lasted. But only six were well directed to the parakeet goal.

Barren possession record

He had more possession of the ball than ever this season (78%), although it was so bland and irrelevant that it did not translate into goals. “From minute 30 on we slowed down a bit and the speed of the ball, we haven’t attacked so well”, Xavi later confessed.

The only Barça goal also came from a set piece action after a corner kick where Espanyol allowed up to three headers from Barça in the small area. First he combed her Lewandowski, then it was Christensen and, finally, also upside down, Mark Alonsoa left-back turned centre-back, scored the goal.

bushy forwards

The defenses were more dangerous than the forwards because Rapinha (two shots on goal) and Lewandowski (one) were less decisive than the former Chelsea defender who, together with Christensen, whose powerful header was felinely deflected by Álvaro, the Espanyol goalkeeper, caused more concern. to the rival

“We lacked effectiveness,” Xavi later lamented, accepting that error in the definition that punished his team. He dominated at the start, then took a nap and then, with Joselu’s 1-1, he wanted to get up on time. But it did not arrive, although it generated two clear scoring chances, both solved by Álvaro.

Xavi’s changes did not improve the team

In addition, the changes introduced by Xavi, beyond the forced by Busquets for Gavi, who had physical discomfort (m. 52), did not revive Barça either. He used the Excel sheet that delimits the distribution of minutes and, above all, effort at game time to replace the two wingers (Dembélé for Raphinha and Ferran Torres for Ansu).

But nothing changed in the Barça attack, with Lewandowski lamenting that the balls did not reach him, confused and entangled in the bad choices of his forwards. Later, Xavi, in the middle of the ‘Mateu storm’, did not contribute to clarifying the panorama either. He pulled out Frenkie de Jongthe most clairvoyant Barça midfielder in the derby, and put Kounde. He removed to Sergi Roberto and placed Bucket. All at the same moment. Eight minutes from the end.

Frenkie de Jong reveals that he was not expected to be replaced by Xavi right in the middle of the ‘Mateu storm’

“I didn’t expect this change,” he said afterwards frankly. Frenkie de Jong, without hiding his discomfort, while assuming that it was the responsibility of the coach. Y Xavi He is the first to champion that serious self-criticism of a leader who has lost energy and solvency in his football.

“We have slowed down. In that good half hour you had to sentence the game. They are our mistakes. We didn’t come out in the second half with the right rhythm and intensity, it’s the same movie as always”

Xavi, coach of Barça

“We have slowed down. In that good half hour you had to sentence the game”, acknowledged the coach. “They are our mistakes. We didn’t come out in the second part with the right rhythm and intensity, it’s the same movie as always,” he added hurt because his team did not know how to interpret what the derby required.

“Of course the players follow me. If I didn’t feel it that way, I would go home. We are all angry,” Xavi confessed after the disappointment of the derby

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When he played well he did not sentence. And when he played poorly he found himself matched by Espanyol, who signed an exercise of perfection: a shot on goal, a goal, Joselu’s penalty, a point.

But Xavi has no doubts about whether his players follow him or not. “Of course they follow me. If I didn’t feel that way, I would go home. We are all angry”



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